Mt. St. Helens

Seaquest State Park is about 50 miles from the observatory and National Park Service Headquarters for Mt. St. Helens. We got up early and drove out there, stopping for breakfast at a little diner on the Toutle River. The photo is a shot from the back porch of this cute little place that was built in the 20's and turned into a diner when the tourist began to come after the volcano erupted in 1980. The day was cloudy and cool.

Toutle River, OR

After eggs and bacon we headed up toward the volcano observatory through fog and mist.

This beautiful shot is from a bridge on route 504 going from sea level to about 3000 feet. The whole valley was covered with fog with the tops of the mountains just peeking through. The shot below is of Steve and Doogie taking the same picture with his cell phone. Cute, huh?

It was even foggier when we got to the observation deck at the visitor's center, and the top 1/3 of the volcano obscured by he mist. Still it was very beautiful.

We watched the award-winning film with actual footage of the eruption of the volcano. Very interesting. Not Huell Howser, thank goodness! The film made a big deal out of the factoid that Harry Truman, who was very old at the time of the eruption, owned a big house on one of the lakes near the volcano and refused to evacuate. They even had footage of him refusing to evacuate and he was one of the 50 or so people whose bodies were never recovered. I sat watching the film asking myself why I didn't know that! You would think there would have been more publicity about it! And I thought that he had died when I was a child. Why didn't I know that? Well, because the Harry Truman who died in the Mt. Helen's eruption was no relation to the former president!

Another interesting thing is the trees in the area. Weyerhausen has logged and replanted many acres around here, and although I don't know the type of pine trees, they are very interesting to look at. Their branches are so absolutely parallel that from a distance they look out of focus. The photo below really is focused well, it's the tricks the trees play on your eyes. Dick if you're reading tell us what kind of pine.

So we're now in Seatte, in a not so nice RV park. But tomorrow and Saturday we'll tour the city. We just met a nice Canadian woman in the landry who gave us many tips about Victoria Island.