Saturday 15th September

We crossed the Columbia River back into Washington and followed it for a couple of hours. The wind was up which attracted many kite surfers to the water.

Clouds could be seen building up over the mountains on the Oregon side.

After the eruption of 1980 the original bridges to Mount St Helens were destroyed and had to be rebuilt.

This is our first real view of Mount St Helens. It's name has connections to St Helens in Lancashire which is where some of Alan's family lived.
This is the view of the Toutle Valley where the big mud and rock slide gushed down.

The huge landslide and flow of lava blocked up some rivers and created lakes such as Castle Lake on the right.

The explosion after the landslide flattened all the trees for miles around.

The road ends at Johnston Ridge Observatory where we got the closest view of the crater itself.