Mt. St. Helens, WA - Sep. 16 - 17, 2008
On September 16th we traveled south on I-5 from Mount Vernon to Mt. St. Helens RV Park in Castle Rock. This park was adequate for a two-night stay, but the sites are very close so we wouldn't recommend it for a longer stay. However, if one plans to stay for a season or longer, it has some very spacious long-term sites with great views of the valley.
We spent a full day exploring Spirit Lake Highway and Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The day was overcast so our pictures didn't turnout as well as we would like, but trust us, the mountain is dramatic in the extreme.
We spent most of our time at the Johnson Ridge Observatory hiking, checking out the exhibits, watching films of the May 18, 1980 eruption and listing to ranger presentations. Johnson Ridge is the closest visitor center to the mountain and one can look into the steaming crater from this location. It is truly an impressive site. We marveled at the unimaginable power that so suddenly blew away over 1,300 feet of mountain, destroyed 150 square miles of forest, caused a deadly flood, and created an ash-laden cloud that circled the planet.
We also visited the Weyerhaeuser Forest Learning Center to learn how the destroyed forest was harvested and replanted with 18 million seedlings. The Learning Center was more interesting that we anticipated and recommend it to anybody visiting the mountain.
The following day we continued our southward trek to the Vancouver/Portland area.
