Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is an incredible, yet humbling, experience. I remember visiting Mount St. Helen's in the summer of 1979, the last summer before the eruption, and reveling in its beauty. Today, the mountain is even more spectacular, with its gaping wound and pummeled forest spread out before it, the forest, and all of its inhabitants, are well into recovery, but the scars of the eruptions are to vast to erase in a mere couple of decades.

The day we arrived was a gorgeous winter afternoon. The sun was shining and fresh fallen snow was blanketing the dramatic landscape before us. It was a wet, heavy snow, unlike the dry powder we had recently left in Banff National Park the day before. We wandered around the visitor center for awhile and then went looking for some good vantage points for photos. Traveling off trail was not so easy since there was several feet of snow encrusted with a thin layer of icy snow. Take a couple of steps and you break through the top layer, only to sink down to your hips. After awhile we came upon the photo before you...this was a good location. It is well balanced, has good lighting, and I particularly like the deciduous trees and plants in the foreground. I will have to return in the spring sometime to enjoy the wildflower spectacle. For additional information about Mount St. Helens try Gorp.