Thursday, September 17th:
We woke up in our magical hut, packed our bags, and hit the road so we could be at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center right when they opened.
[View from Castle Lake Viewpoint - Mount St. Helen's peeking out on the left side]
When we arrived at the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center there were only two other cars in the parking lot. Benefits of traveling during the shoulder seasons!
We made our way out to the back balcony and gazed at the beautiful mountain!
[Coldwater Lake]
We got a few pictures (it was a little bit hazy) and then we went inside to watch the video presentation about the eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980.
As I was watching the video presentation I started laughing because this was the EXACT same presentation that I had watch as a child! They have not updated it since it was originally put out in 1991.
Back in June 1995 we went on a family trip to the Pacific Northwest. We went to Seattle, Mount Rainier, Victoria (Canada), Olympic National Park, and Mount St. Helens. The thing I remember the most from that trip was Mount St. Helens. I was fascinated by volcanoes!
[Mount St. Helens in 1995]
The landscape has come a long way in the last 31 years!
[My journal entry - I clearly don't know what year it is 🤦♀️]
[Mount St. Helens in 1995]
[Me and Luke]
[Ranger Tour]
The landscape has come a long way in the last 31 years!
I told Alicia we had two options: we can stay at Mount St. Helens all day and go on a long hike OR we can go on a short walk and then drive over to Mount Rainier National Park. We decided to go with option two! We went on a short walk to stretch our legs, said goodbye to the beautiful mountain, and then jumped back in the car for our two hour drive to Mount Rainier National Park.
[Good thing Ally got us a fuel efficient car because gas prices are insane!]
Luckily, it was free park day, so we didn't have to pay anything to get into the National Park. We made our way along Paradise Valley Road and stopped at a few lookout spots. That's a gorgeous mountain!
[The glacier use to extend all the way down this valley]
We parked and started walking on the Myrtle Falls Trail.
As we were approaching Myrtle Falls we saw a bunch of Rangers coming down the trail. As they passed us I noticed that they had long guns. I turned to Alicia and said, "There's an animal up there!"
We continued hiking and then we ran into another Ranger who was keeping on eye on a brown black bear! He said it was safe since the bear had moved away from the path and was now moving towards the river.
[See him?!]
[He's looking at us!]
Is that smoke rising from the mountain?! Nope! Just a random little cloud! Phew!
After our hike we made the long trek back to Hagrid's Hut and grabbed dinner at Jeremy's Farm to Table in Chehalis. We were starving and it was delicious!
I could not believe our luck so far! The weather has been cooperating, the company is perfect, and the food has been fantastic!
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