The Ride to Johnson Ridge Observatory

A group of us rode to the Observatory at Johnson Ridge at Mt Saint Helens today. What a beautiful ride with temps in the 70's and partly cloudy. You all can't imagine the sight of this place after the Mountain blew up killing 60 people back in 1980. MT Saint Helens is said that the explosion was 1000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A park ranger outside gave a step by step talk of the mountain blowing up what it did and the different directions it went with spectacular photos taken by some individuals who just barley escaped death themselves. If ever in the Pacific Northwest this is a must place to put on your bucket list. Simply incredible.

First picture we were at a restaurant built overlooking the Tutle River, this area was wiped out even of all trees and its 30 miles from the mountain.



At the observatory looking into the crater


Looking off towards what used to be Spirit Lake that is now buried under tons of rock and silt. A new lake has formed at the same location but sits now a hundred feet or more above the old lake. They said when the blast occurred it took the water in the lake and hurled it up against the side of the hills behind it.




Me and the wife

What a lot of people don't know is in the center of the crater the volcano is still active and a dome has been forming and getting larger.