Two Benches at Mount St. Helens
by Connie Fox
Title
Two Benches at Mount St. Helens
Artist
Connie Fox
Medium
Photograph - Outdoor Color Photo
Description
Two empty benches with a prime view of Mount St. Helens, set against a gentle blue sky that is completely without clouds. Mount St. Helens, still topped here with some snow in late summer, is a National Monument in the state of Washington, south of Mount Rainier. I highly recommend it for a day-trip.
Photographed from Johnston Ridge Observatory, accessible from Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, Route 504. The rugged but peaceful terrain surrounding the observatory, once resplendent with evergreens, is now covered with tall grass, a couple of new evergreens, and brown, sun-bleached stubs of tall trees lost here more than thirty years ago.
As of May 17, 1980, Mount St. Helens, in the Cascade Range, was considered one of the most perfect mountains in the world. But shaken by an earthquake that registered 5.1 on the Richter scale, the active volcano erupted at 8:32 a.m. on a Sunday morning, May 18, 1980.
A huge crater, shown in other pictures in this album, was created by that eruption. The north face of the tall, symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive avalanche of debris, much of it rock that one finds all over the bleak landscape of the blast zone. Some is embedded in twisted carcasses of evergreens bleached by the sun. Even our white car, parked in the driveway in Houston, Texas, was covered with a layer of dark ash from Mount St. Helens.
At several observatories and other resources, one can learn far more about this mighty volcanic eruption, as well as the subsequent activity that changed the face of this beautiful mountain, verdant region, and so many lives forever.
Copyright 2012–23 Connie Fox
All Rights Reserved
16x9; also available in black-and-white
Nikon D80 - DSC_2750
FEATURED on the homepages of Beauty and Today's Best Art, January 2014. Featured by 3-A-Day Waiting Room Art and Premium FAA Artists, November 2014. Featured in July 2017 by Images That Excite You and August 2017 by No Place Like Home! Featured again by Nikon Full Frame Cameras and USA Photographers, August 2019.
Uploaded
January 17th, 2014
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Viewed 252 Times - Last Visitor from Washington, DC on 03/26/2024 at 6:01 PM
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Comments (13)
Gary F Richards
Outstanding composition, lighting, shading, color and artwork! F/L …Voted in the TAKE A PAUSE contest!
Connie Fox
Jenny Soper, somehow I missed thanking you for the homepage feature in August 2017 in No Place Like Home. I really appreciate the feature. As I mention in my Description, some of the ash from the volcanic eruption landed on our car in Houston, Texas. I'm sure most of us feel some connection to the monumental events here, but I'm happy to report that it has taken on a new beauty--especially seen in little survivor plants that have bravely come back. We're looking at the Inner Blast Zone, which was totally devastated.
Connie Fox
Thank you so much, Judy Vincent, for the homepage feature in USA Photographers! I am delighted to see this image getting some exposure.
Connie Fox
Doug Norkum, thank you for the lovely homepage feature of my "Two Benches at Mount St. Helens" in Nikon Full Frame Cameras!
Connie Fox
Thank you, Pamela, for featuring "Two Benches at Mount St. Helens" in 3-A-Day Waiting Room Art. Very nice!