Mount St. Helens: Fire Mountain.

After car camping on Battle Ground Lake, the little miss and I decided to take a detour and check out Mount St. Helens. I've never been there before despite the fact that I've lived in Seattle now for almost two years. This is doubly embarrassing because exploding mountains, and hot lava destruction is one of those things that I'm obsessed with, but also horrified of. Like Sharks.

Most of the park was closed but we made it all the way up to Coldwater Lake. The first visual we had of the mountain is pretty awe-inspiring to say the least.



The view of the monster from my rig.



Mount St. Helens. The World's biggest Ashhole. My Mom didn't get this joke.



Me and Bigfoot. Eat your hearts out Mayor and Franks. I'm in sniffing distance of the mythical balls.



Paul Kane's painting of the 1847 Eruption.



Some interesting facts:

++ Mount St. Helens is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a group of 160 active volcanos. Anything that dwells in a "ring of fire" is pretty superbeastly.

++ The name comes from a British diplomat, Lord St. Helens. Extra beast points.

++ The catastrophic eruption in 1980 was the deadliest, and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. BOOM!

++ 57 people were killed. 250 homes were destroyed. 47 bridges went down. 185 miles of highway disappeared.

++ Mount St. Helens is relatively young compared to most volcanos. It was formed within the past 40,000 years.

++ 83-year-old Harry R. Truman, who had lived near the mountain for 54 years, refused to evacuate despite pleas from authorities. His body was never found.

++ One of the Native American legends involving Mount St. Helens states that The Chief of all Gods and his two sons traveled down the Columbia River from the far North to find land to settle. The came across an area that is now called the Dalles and the two sons began to quarrel over the land. To settle the dispute, their Dad, the fucking chief of all gods, shot two arrows from his mighty bow. One to the North and one to the South. The two sons followed each arrow and settled the land. The Chief built a bridge between them so the family could periodically be together. Later, the two sons fell in love with a super hot nubile maiden and she couldn't choose between them. The two young chiefs fought over her, burying villages and forests in the process. The area was devastated and the earth shook so violently that the huge bridge fell into the river, creating the cascades of the Columbia River Gorge. For punishment, the Chief struck down each of the lovers and transformed them into great mountains where they fell. Wy'east, with his head lifted in pride, became the volcano known today as Mount Hood and Pahto, with his head bent toward his fallen love, was turned into Mount Adams. The super hot nubile maiden became Mount St. Helens, known to the Klickitats as Louwala-Clough which means "smoking or fire mountain" in their language.

++ As far as I know, Soundgarden did not write a song about the Bridge of the Gods legend. Pretty embarrassing for them I imagine. Their bass player is my neighbor. I'll make sure to bring up this point of contention the next time I see him at the coffee shop.