Mount St. Helens

The drive up to the Mount St. Helens museum and viewpoint was interesting. We left the highway and drove through the countryside. It appeared to be the kind of road that only the people who lived off of it would drive. Yet it was one of only two roads up to the museum. While this was interesting heading up, it was more interesting coming down after we saw how many people were at the top.

I think it started getting foggy as soon as we started climbing in elevation (which was quite a while after leaving the highway). When we got to rest stop/reception hall/playground it was pretty dense fog. Since this was our only chance to see Mount St. Helens we were very disappointed. Even Lincoln had learned about Mount St. Helens (mostly by watching shows with his daddy) and was a bit disappointed.

Here are some pictures from the stop. This first one is just one I really like.

 This next one shows all the fog at higher elevations.

 These next two show show Ben playing and burning some energy. Note that he's smushed into the baby swing and loving it.

 Here's another one that I really like from this day.

The museum was decently interesting. They boys liked some of the interactive things to do like pretend to be helicopter pilots.

Doug asked the people who worked at the center and they had just talked to the people up top who said the top was perfectly clear. So we headed up. A few turns above the center the fog was gone.

Here's a picture when we got above the fog.

The museum and viewing center were fine. There was one cool display using itty bitty LED lights showing Mount St. Helens and the surround miles (maybe 30 miles - Doug will probably know this detail). It showed where lava flowed and when. The rest of the inside stuff was mostly boring to a non-history-lover like me and the kids. Outside, we could see the peak - really interesting to see the one side completely blown away, but only the one side. It was also interesting to know that there were people standing where we that thought they'd be safe to watch! It was a beautiful, if fly covered, walk around. The stuff of this wasn't as impressive as being there when we all had learned about the last eruption there.