--and a hillside covered with the lupine. It's one of the first and hardiest of the mtn flowers to reseed from bird donated seeds and flourish! Yes, Paintbrush in the foreground(slightly out of focus). 

--and mountain lupine with its blue flowers. 

--closer view of Indian Paintbrush-- 

This is a natural recovery area--near the observatory--where the small mtn lupine(blue) Indian paintbrush(red) and some grasses are growing. 

This is a photo of Johnston Observatory, the closest public viewing area, without hiking in to the crator---which is forbidden now because of this recent activity. But the land shows how slow a recovery process it is--25 years later--and still looking quite barren of life. 

--self explanatory--how it happened and why. 

This diagram shows the mtn after the blast--with its top gone--and the crater visible(shown in my previous photos. 

This shows(with difficulty, I know) what the mtn looked like before the blast/eruption in 1980. 

This is a shot of the trees, after the 1980 blast, showing the direction of the blast, and the size of the mature forest that was leveled in minutes by the eruption force. 

--the vapor cloud, as it was disappearing, from the eruption that occured while I was driving from one lookout place to the next...talk about being in the right place at the right time--but I was slow to react with my camera, so didn't catch the whole eruption, darn it!! 

and a still closer look. This cone, with the whitish looking base, is only months old. And as I was leaving the park--- 

--here's a closer look at the new cone. At the upper left portion of the photo, with a plume of water vapor coming from it. 

---now showing the north side where the 1980 eruption occured--and a new eruption cone just formed this last fall. Hard to see--soooo 

Mt St Helens from one of the first viewing areas but not showing the newest crater--inside the 1980 crater---- 

Here's a group shot--large colony but no pups yet. They give birth out on the rocks and bring the pups inside only in storms now but will all winter inside. These are year round quarters but some of them travel north to Alaska too--not sure which ones--but Jordan and I saw them on our Alaskan adventure. 

Stellar Sea Lions in their own cave, along the OR coast just north of Florence. They were some distance away and my pics didn't do too well--needed more lessons, son( or daughter) but I shot and hoped. These caves are hundreds of feet below the roadway and reached by an elevator now. Used to be, climbing a stair was the only way to gain access---glad they added an elevator!! 

The 1932 built bridge over the Rogue river--now being refurbished(enclosure over the tower at the right of photo)--expected to be completed by fall of this year. 1932 feet long--story goes that it was due to be done in 1928 but would have been short by 4 feet, if completed then, so they waited until 1932! Good story, anyway. Memorable to me, 'cause my parents were married in Dec of that same year. 

My Jet Boating experience--at least the boats we rode up the river in. 

This shows size, of the rocks, and how much is exposed--fairly low tide. I ate lunch and watched the tide come in and cover these exposed 'finds' for another day. 

This beach was good for wading and rock collecting, because I'm in river country now, and these rocks are washed out of the rivers into the ocean, churned around, polished, and redeposited back onto the beach for us to find(and collect). Many 'rock hounds' are found, at very low tides or after storms, looking for prise agates along these OR beaches. I just collected pretty 'rocks'. 

A veritable forest--and it only takes a few trees to make it. These giants are in a protected section of the coast--a part of the Redwoods Nat'l Park and a stand of 'old growth redwoods' accessible by car. These trees are hundreds of years old and protected. 

Here's a size comparison---some other visitors and I were admiring the same trees. But see how small they look, compared to the trees? 

and #2. That's the top---wayyy up there. Another one of those 'got to be seen to be believed' sort of things. I've seen these giants all of my life and they still astonish me. 

Hard to capture their size--I'm 50 feet away and it still takes 2 frames to show this beauty's height. #1-- 

Leaving the ocean side of the coast, these giants are to be found but only in a narrow band of land. These are the tall Coastal Redwoods--not to be confused with the Giant Sequoias found inland. These giants need the fog to survive--moisture. And the cooler temperatures of these mountains--only on the coast side of the range, too.