[masraum]

Originally Posted by Skip Newsom

Mt St. Helens back in 2018- hard to grasp the amount of destruction, there is still a huge floating mat of logs that are not good for wandering on- if one rolls in you go and they close up over you

I was first there May of 2000, almost exactly 20 years later (I think I was less than 3 days off from being exactly 20 years later). We weren't able to get all of the way to the end of the road because some of it was still covered in snow, but we got almost all of the way to the end of the road. It was the middle of the week and cloudy, so we ran into maybe 5-10 other cars over the course of several hours. It was breath-taking and truly awesome (meaning I was absolutely awestruck by the beauty and destruction that went for miles. The progression of destruction as you approached Mt St Helens was hard to fathom.

I was there again, but in Sep 2018, almost 20 years after the first time. It was a different time of year, and there was much more people and traffic. It was still really impressive, but I'm glad that I got that first shot back on the 20th anniv. I think the solitude, and weather enhanced that first view.