Mt. St. Helens

That is where we went today. It’s maybe 2.5 hours north/northeast of Portland, though located in Washington rather than Oregon, of course. We were lucky with bright, sunny weather all the way. My father was out here for a visit a week or two ago. They took him up there as well, but it was so fogged over that he never saw the mountain at all.

The terrain is still levelled for miles around, 31 years after the eruption, though plenty of new coniferous trees have sprung up, and we saw chipmunks in the area as well.

As we were driving away, the kids wanted to know every couple of minutes if we would have survived at that particular spot, and the younger ones were relieved when we finally passed the sign that said “end blast zone.”

57 people were killed there in 1980, but it could have been so much worse. Thousands of observers were streaming into the area in the weeks preceding the eruption, and they were ordered out mostly on the advice of some assertive geologists who realized the situation was worse than people thought. One of those geologists was David Johnston, stationed 6 miles from the volcano, whose body was never found– though the ruins of his truck were, if memory serves.

The photos are on my brother’s iPhone. I’ll post one as soon as he sends them.

And that’s it… This painfully brief visit to Portland is now finished.

It’s now the 23rd largest metropolitan area in the United States. Is there a better one? Perhaps not. The climate and environment are great, as is the transportation infrastructure. It’s not an easy place to find work, but since my brother can work from anywhere in his high-tech field, he and his wife simply drew up a checklist and looked at many cities, and this is the one they chose– despite no personal or family history for either of them in Portland. After two visits here to see them, I think they made a wise choice. And the kids all adore the city.