Friday, October 10, 2014

Camping Near Some Water and a Hike Up Some Stairs!

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To end our summer we spent two nights at Lower Lewis River Falls Campground. It is a very nice place and you sleep within earshot of the beautiful and large Lower Lewis River Falls.

 

 

 

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We spent the first evening exploring the falls:

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Friday, we headed up to the northwest side of Mt. St. Helens.

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This area still shows signs of the searing hot ash cloud that destroyed the forest.IMG_2138IMG_2264

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Magnus thought this car that was flattened was pretty interesting.

 

 

 

 

We took the short trail to Meta Lake, decimated by the eruption, but now teaming with life.

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Dana likes to find the high numbers of frogs here. These little guys have just recently emerged from being tadpoles. Aren’t they adorable?

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A nice view of Spirit Lake, still filled with logs from the devastated forests.

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At the end of the road is Windy Ridge. There is a good view of the mountain by the car, or you can get a 360ยบ view of the mountain and surrounding valleys and peaks by climbing the 368 steps to the top of the ridge.

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Everyone made it to the top; Magnus even did it himself.

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Windy Ridge and the stairs:

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On the way back to camp, Dana stopped to see Iron Creek Falls

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Lower Lewis River Falls in the evening:

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Anton came up the second night. And when it was dark enough we went up to a nice viewpoint to stargaze. The viewpoint was very busy with people. We were all hoping to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Solar flare activity that weekend gave our area a chance of seeing the magical lights, but only a chance. We waited for quite awhile, but they did not show. But we did enjoy the thousands of other celestial lights. It was even light enough to see the mountain.

Saturday morning we had a nice time around our camp before we headed back home.

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We stopped at the same viewpoint as the night before to mountain gaze. Magnus wanted a picture of his transformer with Mt. St. Helens too.

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