The Eruption of Mt. St. Helens

I took these pictures of photos from a ranger presentation. These were taken from an observer at a look out point 5 miles away! He snapped and ran I'm sure.

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

Seeing as the weather was going to continue to be georgous we headed over to Mt. St. Helens. What you see in this picture are weathered logs still floating on top of Spirit Lake. For those of you who may have forgotten, Mt. St. Helen's erupted in 1980. Today one can still see the devastation of how the eruption has reshaped the landscape.

When we first arrived to Windy Ridge the mountain top was covered in clouds.


This is about an hour later when the clouds lifted. Notice the right side of picture which is the north side of the mountain top. This is where the mountain bulged then erupted blasting away everything in its path.

Spirit Lake has returned but note the lack of vegatation around it.

Beautiful Mount Rainer

Mount Rainier

Summer finally kicked in for Washington state so the weather was perfect for a visit to Mount Rainier National Park. We entered in from the north end first visiting the Sunrise Visitor center area. We were early as we had boondocked at the ski lodge at Crystal Mountain the night before. Enjoyed a nice hike but due to my limited hiking abilities(bum ankles) I turned back only to come across a bear by the trail. Luckily a Ranger was there keeping an eye on things, the bear was enjoying wild flowers and sunning himself ,about 30 feet off the trail, close enough for me. But darn it all I had given the camera to Jim. Good thing we arrived early because as we were leaving the area past the toll booth they had traffic stopped allowing a few cars in as others left. I guess everyone wanted to catch in on the favorable weather!

It was a beautiful drive through the park as we headed over to Paradise. Amazing as the weather was all the trails going out of this area were still covered in snow. They had cleared a short trail out behind the visitor center which was packed with people!

An added bonus to the beauty all around us were the wild flowers that were in bloom due to the late summer.

Family Fun in WA