The eastern flank of Mount St. Helens as seen from the Clearwater Viewpoint on National Forest Road 25.
View of Swift Reservoir
Swift Reservoir is a impounded body of water on the south slope of Mount St. Helens. The road that winds around the mountain passes by the reservoir. When Mount St. Helens blew her top, Swift Reservoir received a heavy dose of ash and debris, filling in a great deal of the reservoir’s original capacity.
A Trail of Two Forests
This unassuming hole in the ground next to a boardwalk on the south flank of Mount St. Helens is a remnant of an old forest that once stood on this site. Thousands of years ago, a lava flow crept down the mountain and encircled the old trees. All that remains of that forest are lava casts. A new forest has grown up in place of the old but remnants of what once was.
Lots of holes everywhere. Lots of old trees.
Looking down into a hole.
A new tree growing over the hole of an old tree.
A lava tunnel made from the trunks of trees long gone is open for people to crawl through. A steel ladder leads down into the entrance hole.
Heading down to see what there is to see.
Inside the tunnel. A fallen tree made this lava cast. Note the bark molding on the walls.
Heather crawling into the hole. This isn’t a tunnel for people with claustrophobia or who have rotund proportions.
Another trunk casting.
The exit to the lava tube.
Moss out on the old lava flow.