Mount Saint Helens

Saturday, July 21, 2012   Mount Saint Helens

Well, it rained again during the night so we slowly started packing up our soggy stuff and loading it into the car.  I did get to do laundry before we left so at least we were starting off with clean, dry clothes.  We briefly talked about going back to the beach first as it was now sunny but the thought of dealing with a lot of wet, sandy, cold little bodies and not knowing where to put all the sandy, wet clothes that comes along with it.....that thought about put this mom over the edge.  I love camping but in the rain....that did tax me a bit.  So, we headed our car toward Washington around 11:45am.

We stopped in Castle Rock for some lunch and we talked to some people there who said we REALLY needed to hit Mount Saint Helens since we were so close. One of the men we talked to had actually been on the mountain when it started erupting.  He had an incredible story and it was fun to hear about it.  We had originally planned to go here but stayed longer in Cannon Beach, so thought that we would not be able to get here.  But... Plan Change #245 and we are off to see Mount Saint Helens.

One of our first views.

On the way, we saw a stand for fresh Bing and Rainier cherries so we stopped to get some and WOW, they are wonderful!

 

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and this was one of our first views of Mount Saint Helens.  It is a gorgeous mountain.  I remember when it blew as it greatly affected my mom's family who lived in Yakima, WA.  But I did not remember many details about it and I was excited to learn more about this incredible event that happened on May 18, 1980 at 8:32am. We watched a movie on the eruption at the Johnston Ridge Observatory and it was incredible!  Before it erupted, the mountain had been around 9,677 feet and after it blew, it was 8, 365feet.  There were 57 fatalities and 185 miles of highway destroyed.  There is still very little growing there as much of the mountain was blown away down to the bare rock.  We could still see trees lying down on their side where they had been knocked over.  It was phenomenal to think of all the incredible power that came out of that mountain.  My mother's family was hit hard with the ash and it greatly affected their lives in many ways....especially the health of my grandparents.  I appreciated the chance to see this mountain up close and learn more about it. 

We have enjoyed traveling around this area as it is where the Cowlitz Tribe is from.  I am actually Native American (or at least a small part :) from the Cowlitz tribe, which is a fishing tribe.  I am not but could be a card-carrying Native American.  My grandmother's great great grandmother was a Princess in her tribe.  I do remember as a child getting  to see some Indian pow-wows and wish our kids could know more of this part of their heritage.

 




We continued driving onto Paradise and found a campground outside of the park as all of the campgrounds in the park were full.  We stayed at the Riffe  Lake Campground. It was a quaint little campground on a beautiful lake.  We sent up our tent and I was drying out the inside a bit from all the "misting" while the boys were starting a fire.  At one point, I glanced out the window of the tent and I saw (unbelievably) that Dave's shoes, legs and the grass around the fire ring WERE ON FIRE!!!!  WHAT??????   The boys and Dave were trying to put it out and I yelled for Josh to get a towel.  I ran to the car and started pulling everything out to get to our towels.  AS I ran back over, Dave was slamming a sleeping pad on the fire, Jonathan was using his (very nice) REI waterproof jacket to slap out the fire.  I used the towel to finish with the last bit of fire.  WHEW!!!  That was scary!!   Thankfully, Dave only lost some hair on his legs, and his hair and eyebrows were singed.  Thank you Lord for watching over all of us and keeping us safe.  Supposedly, the boys had used white gas to start the fire (in the rain) last night.  Tonight, they were trying to keep it going after the fire was started.  NOT A GOOD IDEA FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT BE WONDERING!!   
After calming down (calming ME down), we finished getting camp set up, had dinner and got ready for bed as we planned to climb on Mt. Rainier tomorrow.  We settled down and the kids slept well that night but we were close to a large group of campers who literally stayed up all night.  They were loud at 2:30am and I still heard them at 4:30.  UGHHH!  Frustrating to be close to people who are so inconsiderate but we managed.

As morning neared....it started "misting" again.  Sigh :)