Mt. St. Helens just celebrated it’s 34th anniversary of the eruption in 1980; so we thought it was a good time to go up and marvel at the wonder that is that mountain. Since there wasn't as much snow this year as usual, the roads to Johnston Ridge opened earlier and the place was not as crowed as it can be in the summer.
On the way up, Magnus asked why so many trees were on the ground, so we tried to explain about the eruption. He seemed a bit confused. We watched video at the visitor center and he was amazed at the power of the mountain. For the rest of the day he kept telling us to be quiet so we wouldn’t wake the lava.
We love the view up there.
We ate lunch down at Coldwater Lake. The little hike there is a great place to see how the landscape has recovered after the devastation. We showed Magnus how life comes back; that made him a bit excited (though remember to be quiet, so you don’t wake the lava).
After the lake, Magnus and Dana did a short walk on the Hummocks Trail. Again we saw how life returns and that volcanoes don’t destroy everything. When we got home we watched the Firebird Suite segment on Fantasia 2000. The segment was inspired by Mt. St. Helens, and Magnus loved it. He has now watched it many times. We think the whole thing has been a great learning experience for him.
Our last view point.
Dana also stopped to see these two waterfalls:
Our last stop of the day was at a restaurant that specializes in cobblers. We tried Peach Cherry and Mountain Berry (which I think was blackberry and raspberry) and they were amazing. Out in front of the restaurant is this odd truck. It was a fire truck in one of the logging camps before the eruption. It was carried down river with the floods and came to rest near here.
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