Since we hadn't actually intended on driving into the damaged area, we were unprepared for the sights that greeted us. We found miles and miles of gray hills covered with stripped black timber, snapped off or uprooted, all lying in the same direction. The low cloud cover only added to the chilling effect of the devastation. With every hill we crested, it was more of the same.
The following day, we returned and climbed Windy Ridge, which looks across Spirit Lake towards the volcano. The lake was covered with acres of floating logs, compacted at one end. The area around the ridge, like most areas we explored within the National Volcanic Monument, was still buried in pumice and ash. You had to look very hard to see traces of plant recovery.
Later that same summer, Weyerhaeuser treated us interns to a field trip into their forest lands, lumber mills, and other operations. We were taken into an area of the blast zone that was privately owned by the forestry company, where replanting had already begun. The difference between this area, where a forest of chest-high evergreens covered the slopes, was striking when compared to the public lands in the blast zone, which had been left to recover on their own.
Since that summer, I have been back to visit the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and the new visitor centers several times. Each time, I am amazed at the noticeable level of recovery of plant and animal life, and impressed by the exhibits and offerings at the visitor centers. While the magnitude of the eruption's effects is still very apparent, the evidence of the power of life to reassert itself is undeniable.
