A week or so ago I went to the Portland, Oregon area and took a day trip to Mount St. Helen's.

The view from Johnston Ridge Observatory (named for volcanologist David Johnston who died in the eruption)

and steadily zooming in.....

Holy Cow!! I couldn't remember exactly when Mt. St. Helens erupted so I looked it up. It was in May of 1980!!! I can't believe it was 36 years ago!!! I remember it well, not just because of the enormity of the eruption, but also because I have a friend that was called there to document the conditions of the area after it happened. 36 years!!!! Those are nice pics, Bob! What an immense area. Nice spot of the elk herd!!

This Forest Service worker gave a lengthy, colorful recounting of the events of that day, and really brought it to life.

One of the things he noted is that a different volcanologist was scheduled to be observing the volcano, but he needed to attend a meeting at the university where was a grad student, so he arranged for a different volcanologist to man his post, for just one day -- May 18th. That other scientist wanted to see off a grad student of his that was returning to Germany on the morning of the 18th, so he arranged for yet another volcanologist, named David Johnston to cover the post that morning just until 10:00 A.M. Mr. Johnston reluctantly agreed, and the volcano blew at about 8:30.

We lucked into beautiful weather when we visited:

and hiked far enough that we could see Spirit Lake where Harry Truman (famed local curmudgeon who refused to evacuate) lived in a lakeside cabin

Mount Adams is visible in the distance

Denali National Park

I love that photo, Glenda, with its layers of landscape and the moose in the foreground. (At least I think it's a moose!)

If I remember correctly it was a caribou!

There were two, but one got spoofed, as it was closer to our bus.

This is a pic from a Denali travel guide of caribou

I didn't realize that caribou had such large antlers!

The first picture I shared is one I took and second one is a Denali photo from their website of a caribou. Both look very close.

Amazing how they are both facing in the same direction.