Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in southwestern Washington was established by Congress in 1982 after the volcano’s 1980 eruption, preserving 110,000 acres within Gifford Pinchot National Forest for research, recreation, and education. Its damaged landscape was largely left to recover naturally as a rare large-scale ecological experiment and a record of the eruption’s effects. Over time, visitor centers, trails, campgrounds, and viewpoints have expanded public access while interpreting geology, local history, recovery, and loss. The monument includes notable places such as Johnston Ridge, Windy Ridge, Bear Meadows, the Loowit Trail, and Ape Cave, and it remains both a memorial landscape and an active outdoor classroom.