Mount Saint Helens

At the end of my last post about our vacation, we just left Kendra in Marysville and headed south toward Portland. Portland is not really that far from Seattle, so we made a detour on the way. We stopped at Mount Saint Helens.

A funny gas station sign, selling chicken bacon ranch (what?) for $499 and propane from 9 to 5 and a funny ice cream sign:

 

The view from the visitor’s center:

At the observatory parking lot:

The mountain:

Tent caterpillars:

John’s dad once waged war against them.

Fiona inspects the rocks for traces of recent volcanic activity, then runs up the trail:

More of the mountain and surrounding areas:

Me alone:

I walked up to a high point and waited for John and Fiona, but they never made it. They turned around at some point. While I was waiting, I spoke to a volunteer who said that the day we were there was the first day in a week that the sun was out and that the mountain was visible. I know it does not look very close or very large in any of these photos, but it really is and it is very large. One ranger said the crater was about a mile across. Darn perspective.

I don’t have much else to report about Mount Saint Helens. The pictures of the mountain just before it erupted and while it was erupting are haunting. They have “re-enactment” displays (photographs, scale models, etc) in both the visitors’ center and at the observation station. The visitors’ center is free, but the observation station is not. Even though you can probably get away with not paying, there are signs all over the place to sort of guilt you into doing it. It’s all very interesting to me, but I’m going to stop here.

I’ve always wanted to see Mount Saint Helens, ever since I was in junior high and my social studies teacher told the class about it and his trip to see it. Now I can check it off my list of things to do before I die.