In 1984, four years after the eruption, a forest service road leading to a vista two miles from the still steaming caldera, was open to the public. I took these pictures from two spots on that road. The debris covering Spirit Lake is actually made up of tree trunks that were striped bare by the blast and blown into the lake. The white dome in the distance, above a couple of pictures of Spirit Lake, is the top of Mt. Rainier, another active volcano with two calderas.
Nice pics…music’s a little annoying though.
)
@dnworks Wow! The scientist said those flows can travel very fast. I did not know that actual speed of the flow from Saint. Helens eruption was 700 mph! Now I know that there is this town, I can’t think of the name. The town is most definitely assured to be in the lahar path from a large eruption of Mt. Rainier. Now I watched something that they have lahar warning system attached to devices that when tripped by moving these attached objects(like a tree log)this while sound the alarms in town.
@4SCARECROWS – The pictures were taken August of 1984 when the first forest road was open to the public. As to the ‘clear cut path’, the picture captures the one mile from the dome to spirit lake. The blast front traveled out at 700mph to a distance of over 10 miles to the north, flattening trees as it went along.
Thanks for posting this. I want to know what year did you these pics? One pic in there showed the volcano in the back ground and spirit lake a little and down to the right in the foreground , what made an impression on me in that I could see a clear cut path the flow made from St. Helens to the lake and i think that is a cool all in one illustration of the devastation it did with the land scape as far as the flow to the lake. = )