Mt. St. Helens

We didn’t wake up super early today but we were on the road by 9am. Made it less than a mile and turned around because of a low tire. Brought the fam back to the campground and I went to a local tire shop. T and T tire; friendly, quick, seemed like a great place. And they only charge me $6. They told me to stop asking questions when I questioned why it was so cheap. 

We got back on the road a little after 10 and headed to Ape cave which is on the south side of Mt. St. Helens. 

This is one of the coolest hikes we have done. Hiking in the complete dark (with headlamps) and cold underground through an old lava tube. The kids choose the more challenging upper cave though we had intended to do the easy, flat lower cave.  There were rock piles to climb over, bats, a little water here and there, it was cool. Reminded us a little of the slot canyons in UT. 

There is no easy way to get from the south side of the mountain to the north side.  So we drove around the roughly 100 or so miles   It was a scenic drive for sure. 

We stopped at the last remaining structure damaged by mudslides from the eruption in 1980. Mary became an expert on Bigfoot while we were at the roadside gift shop.  

It was very interesting learning about the eruption. The thing that struck me most was there was very little eruption but more of a blast. Lots of damage around but not much lava. Nature has repaired itself and you wouldn’t even be able to tell most things were dead 40 years ago. Up close there is lots of evidence but in less than 5 miles, trees that were planted after the eruption look like they have always been there. 

On our way home we stopped for supper at a place called Shari’s. We arrived half hour before they closed and they were very short staffed. Food was good especially the Marion berry pie that we at while waiting for the food!