Spirit Lake

A view of Spirit Lake in background with wild flowers in the foreground on the climb up to Windy Ridge near Mt St. Helens.  It deserves the name, it was windy.

A panorama from the top of Windy Ridge.  Mt St. Helens is at the far left in background and Spirit Lake is in the foreground.  On the far right, the grey area in the lake is a log jam from trees brought down by the eruption in 1980.  The barren areas in the phtograph were forested before the eruption and are slowly recovering.  Notice how the backside of the hills and ridges were spared some of the damage that occured on the side facing the volcano.