Paul came up with the idea of detouring to Mount St. Helens on our way to Seattle, which turned out to be a great success. We stopped at the visitor center, where a park ranger gave a great introduction to the St. Helens and the eruption that was both informative and very accessible. From there we took the 57 mile drive up to Johnston Ridge, which is the closest you can get to the northern side of the mountain, which is the side that blew off when it erupted.
Our first stop on our drive up was unsuccessful - it poured rain on us as we walked up the short path to the scenic overlook. We decided to keep going up even though the weather wasn't really cooperating.
Part way to Johnston ridge there is a US Forest Service information center. We pulled off because the weather was clear (for that moment). It was actually really interesting, because you could see how when St. Helens erupted, the mud flows filled up the valleys where the rivers flowed. Today there are streams through the mud that are constantly changing routes.
We got back on the road, hoping to beat the clouds that were following us. We were lucky to get up to Johnston ridge just before the bad weather. We got a few good views and pictures before we were enveloped in a huge rain cloud. I guess that that's typical of the pacific northwest.
When we reached the ridge, the clouds were just high enough that we could see the base of the crater on the north side of the mountain where the volcano erupted sideways. Although I'd learned about the different kinds of volcanoes in school, I didn't remember that Mount St. Helens erupted sideways, spewing rocks at speeds of hundreds of miles an hour into the trees around the mountain. One of the eeriest things about the area around the volcano is that on the ridges around the mountain the sides that face the mountain are completely bare, or just starting to grow new trees while the other sides of the ridges are still covered with trees that survived the blast because of their location.Just after we took our pictures, the clouds that had been following us up to the mountains arrived and it started to rain. The limited visibility that we had was completely gone. Turns out our timing was just right!
After St. Helens we headed up to Seattle, where we're staying in a very nice hostel. I'm happy to report that it is both quiet and clean. Pretty much as soon as we arrived we changed into our Twins jerseys and headed down to Safeco field, which is only about 2 miles from us. The Twins-Mariners game was a fun one to watch - there were quite a few hits but it still managed to move quickly. Safeco is a great park. We were toward the front of the upper level behind home plate and it still felt like we were very close to the action. There were a lot of Twins fans nearby us, and it's always fun to see your team win!
Tomorrow we're planning to check out the Olympic Sculpture Park and see another Twins game tomorrow night!
