Mount St. Helen's

Hello all. I'm back from Girl's Camp and I've survived...mostly. I'm one of those hugely dorky people that NEED, REQUIRE, whatever word is more emphatic, at least 8 hours a sleep a night. I did not get that at camp, so I've been napping since I got home to catch up. Because of this, I haven't downloaded my pictures yet, but soon.

On our way to Mount St. Helen's, we stopped in Portland at the International Rose Test Garden. Right up my alley. There were SOOOO MANY roses there. It was almost too many roses. But ... this picture is just too awesome for words.

Our last stop on our trip from the beginning of July (I really need to blog more) was Mount St. Helen's. We stayed in Kelso which is about one hour South of the mountain. If you ever go to Mount St Helen's, the best film about the eruption is at the Forest Learning Center, not the Johnston Ridge Visitor's Center. The best thing about the Visitor Center is that it's the closest you can get to the mountain.

It's kind of amazing to see how much of the mountain is gone. I can't remember how much, but it was a lot. It's still really desolate around there and the eruption was in 1984.

We went hiking along the ridge of the Johnston Ridge. (Does that sound as weird as I think it does?) Anyway, it was nice and cool when we started, but got hot fast, so we didn't go that far. I don't know if that's steam coming out of the crater or just dust. The mountain "woke up" about 2 years ago. It's been fairly active since then.

This display cracked me up. Notice the phrase at the bottom. "ASH IS NOT ALL BAD." I'm really not ALL bad, just mostly.

There were a lot of t-shirts with "Got Ash?" on them. Brent wouldn't buy one. He's such a spoil sport.

It was a fun little vacation for the two of us. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.