Mt St. Helens, WA

We traveled next to Silverlake, WA, the town closest to Mt St. Helens. As we traveled south and a little east we were losing daylight. Over on the Olympic Peninsula, we could still see light at 10:15 in the evening. It was great...we actually felt like we had more hours in the day! Here in Silverlake it got dark about 9:30pm. We got in late, so took the next day to tour Mt. St. Helens and some of the scenery surrounding it. When we got to our campsite, Mark was most excited about the canal running right in back of our trailer. The campground bordered Silver Lake and had canals to the lake running all through it. Mark and the kids fished and finally caught something! Two big catfish that we promptly tossed back as soon as we got pictures.

The day touring Mt. St. Helens was really amazing. Though it is humbling seeing the devastation to the area, the rapid recovery is even more so. Its been 30 years this year, since the eruption, but the area has really come back as far as forestation and animal life. It was more barren at the National Monument as they didn't allow any replanting. At the Weyerhauser visitor center, we were told that their company planted over 18 million trees in the following six years after the eruption of the volcano. In such a short time, this landscape has been forever changed and is continuing to change. It makes 6000 years look like a very long time!

There is great information out there about what the Mt. St Helens eruptions can teach us about rapid destruction of an area due to catastrophe. This has made many scientists re-think their view on other formations (i.e. Grand Canyon-a little water over a lot of time, or a lot of water over a little time) Here is a link to find out more: www.answersingenesis.org/articles/wog/mount-st-helens
or
www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v6/i1/mtsthelens.asp

Also, enjoy the pictures!

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