One of my all time favorite places to visit on this planet is Mt. St. Helens, the famous Washington volcano that proceeded to blow its top literally off (well, laterally towards the north) in 1980. My family visited relatives in Washington in 1983 and we drove to the monument, but it was one of those really rainy Julys and we saw a whole lot of dead trees in the mist and nothing else.
Finally, after moving to Seattle in 2006, I finally got to see Mt. St. Helens in its recovery mode. It is one of those spots that humbles a person when they realize exactly how powerful nature can be when she wants and also amazes a person when recovery happens without human management and limited interference.
My first view of Mt. St. Helens in Feb 2006:
The mountain is still in the process of growing by building up a magma dome in the middle of its crater and steaming merrily away (with occasional venting of ash and steam, as I believed happened in 2004 or 2005)
As you can see, while there's still an immense amount of erosion and devastation from the landslide that caused the top third of the mountain to slide into the valley, vegetation has made a comeback since 1980:
Each side of the mountain shows both devastation and regrowth (this photo taken over this past weekend):
Spirit Lake used to be a serene scenic getaway before the mountain dumped a bunch of ash, rock and debris into its bed and raised it. Now it sports a new shoreline and a lot of dead trees from the 1980 blast. But beavers love building lodges there.
Given enough time, Mt. St. Helens might rebuild its cone to look more like her sister to the east, Mt. Adams:
But it's also quite possible that the dome and cone building process will lead to yet another catastrophic explosion like 1980's. Geologists can't say for sure.
All I know is that there are few sights in this country that are as awe inspiring.
And we also need a pretty, nice diary to mellow out after the days political events.
UPDATE: wow, thanks for the kind words, compliments, anecdotes and interesting comments. You guys just made my night.