Mount St Helens Diary–part one

We’re approaching the 45th anniversary of the May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington State in the US.

I was there that day.

I lived in Olympia, about 60 miles from the volcano. For months we’d been hearing news of the rumbling earth, increasing intimations that St Helens was restless. At the time, I didn’t know much about the mountain, had seen it on the horizon when driving south along I-5, but never much noticed it.

That day, May 18th, standing around at a swap meet in Tacoma, there was a great cloud in the sky down that way… Looking at it, it was clear that it was not a water vapor cloud. Within half an hour, I was driving down the highway, passed through Olympia, and stopped at a viewpoint in Chehalis where a crowd was gathered, looking in the direction of the mountain, but there was nothing but cloud. Not good enough! I drove on south and turned east on Hwy 12, drove until I was under that cloud, and then in it.

It was like being in fog, but dry. I got out and walked around along a side road. The forest all around was muffled the way it would be in a snowfall, but grey and not cold. I gathered up a jarful of the floury ash, which I have still.

A thought occurred to me: ages from now–actual earth ages–when this surface of the world is buried deep, a thin grey layer of rock, some future geologist could uncover it, and there will be my footprints in the geologic record of May 18, 1980.

_{April 24, 2025 CL Redding}