We never would have imagined this visit would be so much fun! Visiting the Johnston Ridge Observatory when at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is a must. There is an entrance fee, but your America the Beautiful pass will get you in for free. At the observatory you have a fantastic view of the blast side of the volcano. There is a lot of interesting information, a movie, a 3-D model of the volcanic blast zone, and hiking trails. Jackson completed his Junior Ranger badge here!

Something we didn’t realize about the May, 1980 blast is that the eruption happened out the side of the volcano, not the top. So you don’t have to be above the mountain to see the crater left behind.

You can still see trees on the ground that were knocked down by the power of the eruption. The blast zone was much larger than experts at the time anticipated. Logging companies replanted vast acres of trees.

We watched “Harry and the Hendersons” just before arriving in Washington. Hey, you never know…