Day 5

Mt St Helens and the Columbia River Gorge

We survived our night in the woods and, in the morning, the smell of sewage appeared to have dissipated somewhat. But we were glad to get out of there!

The sky was a little cloudy, this morning - and I was a little afraid that the mountain wouldn't be visible. Silly! The mountain and the whole of the route to and from the mountain, surpassed my expectations. The beauty of the whole area was extraordinary, especially considering the havoc wreaked in 1980!

We continued along the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, making our first stop at Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center. It was from here that we could've taken a helicopter trip over the crater, but it was very expensive and we decided (somewhat reluctantly) to pass on this. The visitor center was quiet, this still being quite early in the morning and, it turned out, that the remainder of our visit to Mt St Helens would continue to be uncrowded - and that was great! From Hoffstadt, there was a magnificent view up to the volcano, across the Toutle river, where there was much evidence of past lava flows and lahars.

Next stop was the Forest Learning Center. The center was extremely well done with an immensely interesting exhibition, explaining how the trees had been blow down by the explosion in 1980 and how they were being replaced. There was also a viewpoint, from which we could (squinting!) see elk down on the avalanche and mudflow deposits.

From the Forest Learning Center, our next stop was Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center, where we had to pay and have 'bracelets' attached to our wrists! The view was staggering - not only of the volcano, but also of Coldwater Lake. All along the highway, there was an abundance of wild flowers: Fireweed, Monkeyflower, Birdsfoot lotus, Indian paintbrush and Lupines (I'd bought a book at Hoffstadt!). Nobody was allowed to stray off the walkways, so as not to disturb this incredible recovery of nature.

Loowit Viewpoint was our next stop - and, quite possibly, my favourite viewpoint of the whole lot. We were now very close to the volcano, gazing down at the pumice plain. And all around us, the ground was blanketed with wildflowers, which grew around and over the myriad toppled tree trunks.

From Loowit, Johnston Ridge Observatory was just around the corner. We had to walk a little distance from the car park, but who cared in beautiful surroundings such as these! The visitor centre here was very interesting (seismograph et al), the souvenir shop full of fascinating bits and pieces (Paul bought me a racoon!) and the view was stupendous. Never to be forgotten.

We dined on hot-dogs from the train carriage (Mountain Molley) back down at the car-park, and relaxed a while in the hot sunshine, before retracing our route back along Spirit Lake Memorial Highway.

On the way back down, we stopped at Elk Rock viewpoint, to take a photo of Mt St Helens and Mt Adams (which I'd thought at first was Mt Rainier - but that was in the opposite direction!).

We also stopped again at the Forest Learning Center, as Paul wanted to buy a sweatshirt from there. Back at the start of the highway, in Castle Rock, we looked around the Mt St Helens Visitor Center and shopped in the Mt St Helens Souvenir shop.

Our next leg of the journey was a quick hop down I-5, to Portland, where we somehow had to by-pass the city, but still get ourselves across the Columbia River, onto the Oregon side! We managed this without too much problem - although we did get lost once and had to stop to get our bearings! There were some fabulous views, along this stretch of road, of Mt Hood - yet another magnificent volcano!

We turned off onto the 'Historic Road 30', which was a bit of a beast - rutted roads, whirly bends and not much view of the river! But it was worth it, when we reached the viewpoint for a spectacular view down over the Gorge - and, a little further along, we stopped at the breathtaking Multnomah Falls.

We were tired by now and thankful that it wasn't much further to Cascade Locks, where we were spending the night in the Best Western Columbia River Inn. Our room was nothing special, but comfortable enough. We had a balcony (a bit high for my liking!), which had a couple of seats and we could not only look out over the river and the Bridge of the Gods, but also count the carriages of the numerous (and very noisy) trains which rattled past! There was also a warning note, on the table, about gnats - and to keep the windows closed! We didn't know what to do about getting something to eat, but we sauntered down to the town (avoiding the swarms of gnats best we could) and reached the little Columbia Market Grocery Store, just before closing time! We bought some picnic stuff and took it back to our room.

Later, we phoned my Dad to tell him what a wonderful time we were having! Then we went out like a light! Paul and I had no problems with the train noise, as we were wearing ear-plugs anyway ....

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ]

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