Teachers' Corner

Mount St. Helens Adventure

A Trip to Mount St. Helens By Matt Jones | June 1, 2008

Last Friday I braved a field trip to Mount St. Helens with 300 8th graders. I have been finishing the year by filling in for an 8th grade teacher who went on medical leave. One of her projects (that she adores) is an all-grade field trip to the volcano. I’ll have to admit, it was a tiring project, but it was also a good experience. Luckily, the teacher was still able to do a bunch of the work (like make the packets and decide on groups), IT really was an awesome field trip. I definitely hope the kids learned a bunch; I know I did. We first went to Coldwater Lake Recreation area and walked the interpretive trail. Coldwater Lake was created by the debris ejected in the 1980 eruption.

After that we walked the Hummocks Trail (2.5 miles). The Hummocks Trail takes you through the 1980 eruption avalanche area (a 5.1 magnitude earth quake triggered an avalanche that traveled 13 miles down the Toutle River). The hike is fairly easy (even for 8th graders) and is filled with gorgeous views, giant (and numerous) hummocks, and extremely interesting information about that fateful day. Yes, learning can be fun! The view of the Toutle River Valley is quite interesting because the river has been slowly eroding the deposited material left by the eruption.

Finally, we made it up to Johnston Ridge Observatory. Let me tell you, the day was perfect. You never know what will happen at JRO. Johnston Ridge looks directly into the north wall opening of the crater but on cloudy days (of which there are plenty) you can’t see too much. But Friday was completely clear and offered absolutely gorgeous views. The video presentation opened up to a perfectly clear view of the growing volcano. I was amazed at how much the crater has grown in the last few years. The south wall, the whaleback, has especially had some tremendous growth.

Check the Wikipedia article on the 1980 eruption. It is informative and offers links to other good sites.