Lower Step Falls

No Information available.Step Creek is the smaller of two significant watercourses which flow from the crater of Mount St. Helens. After the mountain erupted in 1980 the crater began functioning as a large catchment basin, and in the winter of 1981-1981 the Crater Glacier began to form and is now the largest glacier on the mountain, as well as the youngest and fastest growing glacier in the United States. Once the glacier began forming, its meltwater began channeling into what is now Loowit and Step Creeks. Loowit Creek represents the primary outflow path, while Step Creek formed in a parallel channel. Both streams have carved significant canyons into the post-eruption landscape, but because Step Canyon occurs in an area with significantly less resistant earth, it formed a much larger, deeper and generally more impressive canyon. Like its neighbor, Step Canyon is incredibly unstable and is the site of frequent landslides and debris avalanches. This instability was the catalyst which led to the formation of the canyon in the first place and has since resulted in parts of the canyon widening as well as significant alterations to Lower Step Falls itself over the years. Comparing imagery available on Google Earth which was taken in 1994 to imagery in 2018 shows Lower Step Falls to have migrated upstream by over 200 feet in that 24 year timeframe, but perhaps more impressive is that the creek has cut its channel so much deeper in that 15-year span that Lower Step Falls has likely grown in height significantly, while its upstream sibling has been reduced by more than half from its previous stature. Comparing LiDAR data from the USGS and Google (the dates of acquisition is not clear) shows that the falls previously stood about 80 feet in height, but now stand closer to 120 feet tall.