At the end of the trail is an excellent view of Mount St.
Helens and Spirit Lake. In good weather you can see part of the growing lava
dome within the crater (1986 height, 918 feet).
Along this trail is a cut
tree trunk that shows tightly clustered growth rings corresponding to the years
A.D.1801-5 (effects of eruption of pumice of the T tephra in A.D. 1800;
Yamaguchi, 1983). Along the trail the blast deposit can be recognized by its
gray color. It contains gravel-to sand-size rock fragments from the edifice of
Mount St. Helens, pieces of slightly vesicular gray dacite from the cryptodome,
and fragments of shredded wood. The hike is an opportunity to explore the
diverse effects of the blast on both large and small trees. Small trees buried
under the winter snow remained untouched. Very few large trees were transported
or reoriented after they fell. Standing trunks on and behind the ridge to the
north indicated that the flow was diffuse enough to loft over them but still
snapped off their crowns.
-- Excerpt from:
Doukas, 1990,
Road Guide to Volcanic Deposits of Mount St. Helens
and Vicinity, Washington: USGS Bulletin 1859, 53p.
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