We had a brief stop at Mt. St. Helens National Monument in southern Washington. It was a little out of the way, but so worth the trip. Seriously, this place is at the top of our list of favorite public lands we have been to on this journey. We basically got a crash course in volcanology.
Mt.St Helens! Most know it as the volcano that erupted in 1980 and covered the Midwest in ash, but having stood next to the mountain that has had its top blown off and to see all the trees around that were blown upwards and dead is a really amazing thing to see. It was a great reminder that nature is powerful and deadly, but it is also resilient. It’s been 37 years since the eruption and there are plants and new trees everywhere. As the great Dr. Malcom in Jurassic Park says, ” I’m simply saying that life, uh… finds a way.”
😉
There is so much interesting stuff to be learned about this place. We can’t go over it all. We highly encourage you to check out some of these web resources to learn more.
Anyways, this monument is so much more than its volcano. We found beautiful waterfalls, awesome geological features, wild blueberries, views of nearby Mt. Adams and Mt. Ranier, caves, lush forests, wild mushrooms, and great hiking.
Here are our photos from our trip to Mt. St. Helens!
Nearby waterfall.It looks refreshingWe went swimming. It was freezing!One more view 🙂We made it!LearningSpirit Lake. There are still logs floating on it that were brought down in the eruption.Climbing up!Great view of the collapsed mountain.
A tree was blown uphill.
Ranger talk.
Forest fire in the distance. Yikes.Another angle.Panoramic view.Hiking time.Trail Map. We will do Norway Pass Trail.Lots of wildflowers.Is that a mountain in the distance?Yep! That’s Mt Adams.
Chicken of the Woods! An awesome edible mushroom that tastes like chicken.Close up!Mt. Ranier in the distance!
Kicking up lots of ash
Pumice stones. Some of what got blown out of St. Helens when it erupted. It’s lava that cooled really really fast.Hiking back down we could see the forest fire in the distance getting worse. We didn’t know until the next day that this was the Eagle Creek Fire in Oregon. A couple of kids playing with fireworks started this fire. It stranded hikers and burned down one of the most beautiful hiking spots in Oregon.Close upNext Day. Time for some cave spelunking.
Got our headlamps on!Going down into a lava tube.
Lava Tube
Nearby to the cave, we found a short trail that shows off where trees were burned down by lava. The lava then formed these “tubes” where the tree used to be. One can even climb down into them and crawl out an opening on the other side.Coming out the other side.Laura does not like the dark and immediately freaked out.New tree!Off to the next trail. This one came with warning signs.This is Camrin defying those warning signs.Cool geology from ancient lava flows.Sweet!
The view below!
Our campsite in the woods.
We do our best to practice proper hygiene in the wild.
