Blogs from Mt St Helens, Washington, United States, North America - page 2

Today is another long day of driving. It’s longer than I originally planned. I have to get my damaged car fixed soon. I want to spend time along the Pacific coast in this next stretch of the trip. Instead, I have to find someplace I’m willing to stay put for a few days. Given my recent experience, Portland Oregon (see ) seems like the best choice of a hangout. I have a single day left to see the Oregon coast which means I need to get near there today. From Seattle, that is a pretty long drive. Some things stick out from the long haul south. Many interstates in this part of the country were built on top of existing roads. For I 5, that road was US 99. In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration ... read more

Entry 27: Seattle, Washington: Mt. St. Helen’s Volcano Area, Washington Thursday, August 26, 2010 Seattle Ya' Later (Sorry, it's late...) Finally getting packed up in the ol’ truck, I was ready to shake Seattle’s subtle embrace and begin the (surely) long drive back to Chicago that Sophie and I faced (It had already been 5 weeks since we had left, and the eventual back-to-school mindset had already reared its head). It was around 3:30 when I pulled out, and I decided to take the time to cross off my (only) remaining two items on my Northwest-area: the Seattle Public Library’s flagship steel-and-glass building, opened in 1994 and located near Elliott Bay on 4th Street and Madison. Although I didn’t get to go into the building, I admired the building quickly from the sidewalk (ticket-writing was brisk, ... read more

Word for the day is “fog”. We woke to find the little valley we were staying in socked in, where the day before there had been beautiful blue sky… Actually—knock on wood—we’ve had great weather up on this trip so far. We hoped for an early burn-off so we could get good views of Mt. St. Helens later in the morning. But at that point, we settled for a quick hike to the nearby mud flow still left from the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980, which the Eco-Park’s owner had suggested was a good intro to the Mt. St. Helens experience. It was quite impressive to see the destruction the mudflow had caused—acres of barren sandy mud with the burned out trees that were left standing in the distance. Apparently most of the devastation from ... read more

Although we took off from Chehalis but it was a long drive - almost 2 1/2 hrs in. It was raining off and on and the fog came in so we didn't get to see into the crater. But we did see alot and it was beautiful amongst old growth forests, and mossy trees. Then we got to the edge of the blast zone. WOW! Surreal, quiet and you could almost picture the mud lava coming down the hills, and blasting away the trees. There was bark just stripped on the side and the trees looked like kindling and it has been over 30 years. ... read more

Got off onto the road about 2pm after an urgent care visit and additional packing. Greg had to try to get the Internet working at the house but something was broken with the router. The drive to Paradise Creek was much shorter than I thought it would be. It was a very beautiful drive through the trees along the Columbia river. We crossed over the Bridge of the Gods - all steel grates - Yikes!… and then we were there. We drove the campsite loop and tracked down our friends who were not really sure who we were due to the rental car. On the loop there was a huge 6’+ diameter tree that had fallen down and had to be cut to open a path for the road. It was raining off and on all ... read more