Professor Tara Curtain, in the white hat, from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York state helps students from a geoscience field studies course measure the angles of Mount St. Helens at Windy Ridge viewpoint at Mount St. Helens National Monument Thursday.
Todd Horton, of Bellingham, reads a map at a viewpoint stop on Forest Road 99. Thursday was his first time to the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. He said he made trip to do some painting.
Visitors to the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument climb and descend the stairs at the Windy Ridge viewpoint Thursday.
Judy Meyer from Missouri and Steve Moller from Arkansas read an information sign at Windy Ridge viewpoint at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Thursday. Meyer first visted the site 10 years after the 1980 eruption. She said the land has changed a lot since then. Moller was visting the volcano for the first time.
Esther Jackson, of Spokane, reads information signs at Windy Ridge viewpoint at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Thursday. Jackson has lived in Washington 35 years and was visting the volcano for the first time.
Students from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York state measure angles of Mount St. Helens at Windy Ridge viewpoint at Mount St. Helens National Monument Thursday.
Professor Tara Curtain from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York state talks to about one dozen students from a geoscience field studies course at Windy Ridge viewpoint at Mount St. Helens National Monument Thursday.
New and returning visitors are making their way to Windy Ridge at Mount St. Helens following the recent opening of the route to the viewpoint.
Thursday’s visitors included college students and artists who traveled the twisty Forest Road 99 to gaze upon Mount St. Helens, the destruction it caused decades ago and the regrowth that has occurred since.
Forest Road 99, which opened on May 15, ends at Windy Ridge, showing off not only the volcano itself, but also the forest it blew down during the 1980 eruption and Spirit Lake.
The road typically doesn’t open until mid-July, according to the Forest Service’s website.
