Prior to the 1980 MSH eruption, the area around MSH and Spirit Lake was dense mature forest. Every tree in the 12-15 mile radius blast zone was instantly laid down. These trees were snapped off at their base, branches snapped off and only stumps were left in the ground. At that time, scientists predicted that it would take 1000 years for the ecosystem to be restored due to the complete devastation of all life and burial by acidic ash in the blast zone. However, when I visited MSH in 1996 (16 years after the eruption), the blast zone already had ground cover vegetation and small shrubs/trees emerging in the blast zone and the area was teaming with elk and deer and other smaller wildlife.

Following Bill’s advice, we started our exploration by going into the MSH National Park (NP) from the west side. We stopped at the Weyerhaeuser Visitors Center, made some videos then headed out to the Hummocks trail near the southwest side of Coldwater Lake, due west of MSH. Along the way we drove through mature forest that were planted by Weyerhaeuser at different stages (signs indicating the date of planting) and many areas already being harvested.  Along the Hummocks Trail we made several videos about the rapid regeneration of the forest by Craig Hawkins (BS and MS degrees in forestry and worked as the Australian National Forest Service for decades). I made videos about the significance of bioturbation using the massive ant mounds and extensive root systems of felled trees that we observed along the trail. Joe made videos of the significance of the tree stumps left from the initial blast.

The second day we entered the MSH National Park from the south, traveling through National Forest. We explored the Muddy River which is a 30 mile long stream on the southeast side of Mount St. Helens. During the eruption, lahars swept through the river leaving volcanic rocks and sediment that are still there today.  We hiked up the river and trails in the area. While today the river and its tributaries have clear mountain waters, that was not the case during the eruption as it too, like the Toutle River, was filled with logs and cement like sediment.

The highlight of the trip was the 3^rd day when we followed Bill into MSH National Park from the north side. It was a wild drive as the road was sloughing off the mountain side almost the enter route in. We hiked to Spirit Lake and then drove to the closest observation point to MSH. The 1980 eruption caused an 850 foot high tsunami in Spirit Lake that stripped the surrounding land of everything and scared the rocks. When the lake reformed, the surface was 200 feet higher and 900 acres larger in area but around 150 feet shallower. The biggest difference was it was filled with around 1 million trees that were missing their stumps (root systems), and branches. Over a short period of time, these floating trees lost their bark as they rubbed and bounced off each other. By scuba diving and doing sonar scans, Dr. Steven Austin and the creation scientists team discovered that the trees were sinking to the bottom in a vertical position with the trunk end at the bottom as if they grew in place from the lake bottom. He also discovered that the missing bark had settled to the bottom of the lake and had already formed an organic mat that was at the early stages of coal formation just as his dissertation had proposed for the real process of coal formation.

By hiking to Spirit lake we saw the scars in the rocks from the tsunamis, and there are still trees from the blast floating in the lake. These trees are still making music by bumping into each other and rubbing against each other by wave action. We learned that the trees that entered Spirit Lake in 1980 soaked up water and sank in order of their species. In other words, the most absorbent tree species sank first, then the lesser absorbent species. Therefore, if erosion events had continued to fill Spirit Lake with sediment, you would see a stair-step of tree species buried in a vertical position as if they grew in place and evolved over millions of years but in fact this soaking up of water and sinking by species happened over 45 years to date and is still occurring today. We also saw that the remaining trees in a log jam along the lake shores had abraded ends from rubbing against each other. This is exactly what fossilized log jam trees in deposits around the world look like, thereby, confirming the process for their formation. Again, it didn’t require long time just the right conditions.  

From the observation point on the north side of MSH, we had a clear view of the volcano which was smoking while we were there. We watched elk playing and fighting in the valley below. We also made several videos of Bill explaining the eruption and the people who were killed at this very spot as well as those that survived and made the most famous pictures of the eruption.  

The last day we went back to the Hummocks trail and then spent some time looking at the sediment along the Toutle River. There I was filmed talking about the rapid development of soil profiles in this sediment. See our Research Findings for more details on the significance of the soil profile as well as other things we learned and observed on this trip.