USA Guide
The Pacific Northwest
Mount St Helens
The looming volcanic mound of Mount St Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, its blast wave flattening 230 square miles of surrounding forests.
The area around the mountain has three entry routes. Many visitors arrive along Hwy-504 which snakes through dark green forests until bald, spiky trees give way to thousands of lifeless gray trees lying in combed-down rows. At the end is the Johnson Ridge Observatory (May– Oct daily 10am–6pm; 
360/274-2140, 
www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm ), which offers fine views of the still-steaming lava dome.
An alternative is to take Hwy-503 from Portland to Cougar, on the mountain's southern side – dotted with ravines and lava caves, as well as ashen lahars – from where the summer-only forest roads USFS-90, -25, and -99 wind along its flanks to Windy Ridge. Here you can see entire slopes denuded of foliage, colossal tree husks scattered like twigs, and huge dead zones where anything alive was vaporized.