Way Too Much Smoke: Volcanoes (and Rivers and Ridges) in the Pacific Northwest

Mt. Jefferson

There I was minding my own business while flying north from RNO to SEA (that is to say, I was reading a thick book and trying to ignore a seatmate while crammed against the window near the rear of a Q400), when I looked out (to the east) and spotted the peak of an Oregon volcano sticking out through what I first thought was a low, thick cloud cover. I grabbed a few quick shots through a badly spotted and smeared window, while rapidly revising my reckoning about the cloud bank: no clouds, just a very dense blanket of smoke.

Whereas I first estimated I was somewhere over central Oregon south of Sisters or Bend, it soon became apparent that I was probably a little farther north than I thought — and it turns out I was between Sisters and Portland looking at Mt. Jefferson (first photo).

Mt. Hood

The photo above shows Mt. Hood barely sticking up above the dense smoke bank. Hard to say exactly, but it looks like the smoke is about 10,000 feet thick! Hood's peak sits at an elevation of 11,240 feet, and its south shoulder sits at somewhat above 10,400 or 10,600 feet (depending on what part of the shoulder we're actually looking at); the Portland outliers of Troutdale and Springdale in the foreground have elevations of about 100 feet and 300 feet, respectively. As a geographical point of interest, the larger, streamlined island on the north side of the wide Columbia River is Reed Island. The river beyond the island fades gradually and then disappears abruptly in the distance.

Mt. St. Helens

My first view of Mt. St. Helens was of what I call the back side (the south side). It's clearly not an ordinary Cascade volcano by today's standard of nice, symmetrical peaks, although several Cascade volcanoes are known to have created lateral blasts like the one St. Helens produced in May, 1980 — and maybe all or most have done something like that sometime in the past.

Mt. St. Helens

This second shot of Mt. St. Helens (above) shows the South Fork of the Toutle River in the foreground and Spirit Lake in the background.

Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams

Mt. Adams can be seen in the distance, barely sticking up above the smoke, even though it reaches an elevation of 12,277 feet!

North Fork Toutle River

This view of the Toutle River (Google Maps location) shows an area just above the Toutle River Sediment Retention Structure. The berg of St. Helens sits across from a green, tear-dropped-shaped "island" that is marked as hill 11227 on some topographic maps (e.g. this one at the USGS TNM 2.0 Viewer).

Smoke amid the low hills between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Ranier

One last look at Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Ranier

Mt. Ranier, the tallest Cascade volcano at an elevation of 14,410 feet, rises above the smoke more than any of the others. The clouds obscuring its peak make it appear to be erupting (it wasn't).

A last view of Mt. Ranier, seen as the airplane descended toward SeaTac.

Smoky wisps interfinger with some low hills north of the airport after take off several hours later.

Photos taken 26August15 between 10:13am and 4:59 pm, PDT.

A Bit More about Mt. St. Helens:
Where in the West: Mt. St. Helens — LFD
Mt. St. Helens Field Trip — LFD
It's the 35th Anniversary of the Big Ba-Boom: Mount St. Helens and the May 18th Eruption — Rosetta Stones
Why Have Volcanoes in the Cascades Been So Quiet Lately?  — Eruptions

Too Much Smoke — And Pelicans!

It's a little hard to tell how smoky it is from this picture, until you realize that Lassen Peak, the central feature of the Lassen Volcanic Center and Lassen Volcanic National Park, should be easily visible just to the left of the distant part of the highway. Here's what this same view looks like on Google Street View (or see the next-to-last photo of this post).

Yes, it's been very smoky in northern California this summer, as it has been in many places across the west. These particular photos were taken on August 21st, when I just happened to drive down the right roads in the right direction, i.e., westerly, so it was easy to notice that Lassen was essentially missing.

Mt. Harkness is on the far right; Kelly Mountain is a little left of center.

Lassen should be where the faint smudge is in the photo above, immediately to the left of Kelly Mountain.

Here, a little farther down the road, Mt. Harkness is on the horizon on the very far right, just above the highway; Kelly Mountain has disappeared below the the sloping, forested horizon. Lassen would normally be standing out just near the center of the photo (Google Street View location).

Kelly Mountain *might* be part of the far, outlying flanks of the older, larger volcano known as Mount Tehama, but *might* is a speculation on my part, one not based on much geologic research (or any mapping!).

The road took me by an overlook of the northwestern end of the hazy, smoky Lake Almanor. The lake is very low for this time of year; it has nevertheless been host to lots of pelicans, egrets, Canada geese, and many other waterbirds including occasional sightings of blue heron, and the often ubiquitous coots.

Six pelican swim away from me above the lower left blue patch; two egrets stand like symmetrical statues toward the right.

I could see Lassen Peak clearly on August 24th; the photo location approximates that of photo #1.

Lassen Peak looms above the darker, tree-covered Kelly Mountain, from a location close to photo #2.

A Bit More about Lassen Peak & Mount Tehama:
Where in the West: Lassen Peak — LFD
Remembering Lassen Peak’s Last Blast, 100 Years Later — Eruptions
The Volcano That Wasn't There, and Two That Were... — Geotripper
Interlude: "Lateral Blasts of Great Force"  — Rosetta Stones

Road Song: Rockin' in the Free World

Neil Young: Rockin' in the Free World (lyrics)
Album: Freedom, 1989

This is technically a road song because it mentions streets twice and roads once, and because the video that came out with the song also shows a lot of streets. It's a rather dire song — quite appropriate today IMO — but it is not the sort of song I think of when heading out on the open road. (The open road in the west is often a dirt road, and who knows where it will be taking you when you leave the pavement.)

This came into my playlist again (not that I really have a playlist!) when Trump decided it was an appropriate campaign song. Maybe he though it was pro-USA; who knows. It isn't, and maybe he's figured that out by now.

El Niño Near Long Valley Creek, Lassen County, CA

I've got a few more pictures from that rainy May day, the 21st, when MOH and I were on what was really the first leg of a trip to Colorado and back.

A downpour over unnamed hills just off the north end of the Bald Mountain Range and just south of Beckwourth Pass. Photo taken May 21st, 12:44 pm.

Looking up Dinwiddie Arm (of Long Valley Creek?) into the area of Roberts and Coulee Canyons. Mount Ina Coolbrith, with summit at 8051 ft (2454 m), is the long sloping mountain in the mist; Little Haskell Peak, at 6135 ft (1870 m), is the dark hill on the far left.

More hills in the foreground, more peaks of the Bald Mountain Range in the background, as the downpour continues.

Note in these pictures how green everything already was! It's been a green spring because of the unusually rainy May, though I haven't noticed any particularly unusual areas of high wildflower density. It is starting to brown up now, with the halogeton and tansy mustard being the last to fade to brown, although bushes such as sagebrush, rabbit brush, and fourwing saltbush are still plenty green.

These particular photos are all from Long Valley in Lassen County, and they were taken from the south-bound lanes of Highway 395 between Hallelujah Junction, CA, and Border Town, NV.

Related Posts:
El Niño at Honey Lake
The Beginning of an El Niño Trip: North-Central and Western Nevada

A Watering Hole Bites the Dust: Water Hole #1

Water Hole #1 in Golconda, Nevada — a bar made famous in the late 1970s by an industrious pig, Waterhole Ike — closed sometime within the last two to three years, before I had a chance to stop by and check out their beer collection.

Water Hole #1 and attached grocery store in March, 2015.

The bar and store during better times: June, 2012.

Zooming in on the bar.

Note the boarded-up windows.

A view of part of the motel next door.

The rest of the motel.

Part of the motel in June, 2012.

Read more about Golconda and Waterhole Ike:
A Visit to Often Overlooked Golconda - Backyard Traveller, Rich Moreno
Waterhole Ike - Howard Hickson's Histories
The illustrious past of Golconda - RGJ.com
Mike's Water Hole - FB page

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And, by the way, the stories about Waterhole Ike remind me of a story told by a former colleague of mine, who — back in the old days — once saw a pig walk into a bar up in northern Idaho (or maybe it was Montana? or Colorado??). The bartender or a friend of the pig grabbed a beer (can or bottle, I'm not sure which; brand, I'm not sure of that, either), opened it, and held it for the pig, who immediately guzzled it. The colleague, rather dumbfounded by the incident, asked about this phenomenon and was told that the pig saunters in to the bar about the same time every day and has a beer. (Story verified by another former colleague.)