Johnson Ridge Observatory - Lookout, June 27, 2007

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A close-up of the penstemon, sorrel, and showy sedge visible in the next two photographs on the right. Penstemon, sorrel, showy sedge, and two young conifers sprout life and color against the bleak, stark devastation. Mount Saint Helens is an active stratovolcano situated in Skamania County, Washington (96 miles south of Seattle, and 53 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon). Sedges and grasses proliferate among penstemon blooms juxtapositioning the still steaming cone from the most deadly and economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States of America.
180-mph, 160-212°F debris avalanche flowed 14 mi W and 5 mi N (depth 640' max, 150' ave). A 120-390°F lateral blast traveled 225-730 mph (450 mph ave). An Indian paintbrush blooms above penstemon blossoms & fresh greenery on the volcanic floor of the former forest. Purples of penstemon and sorrel flank an Indian paintbrush alongside bright white budding yarrow, arising from ashes. Northern yarrow (Achillea borealis) & Cardwell's penstemon (Penstemon cardwellii) add fresh color to the lifeless gray.
The Johnston Ridge Observatory offers close-up mountain and lake views, as well as the horseshoe-shaped crater and its still-desertified pumice plain lying directly below. A young noble fir towers above penstemon; a low green growth of vegetation begins to reclaim the blast zone of Mt. Saint Helens and the adjacent Toutle River Valley. Skeleton stumps and logs from a formerly fertile forest, blasted and avalanched by the May 18, 1980 eruption. Over a quarter of a century has passed, and Mt. St. Helens shows no signs of calming down anytime soon.

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