Dear Briggz,
Our
next stop was Mount St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. Mount St. Helens was first up.
We tried to go to the new visitor center but it closed the day before, so we
drove further up to the observatory. When we got there, we checked out a few of
the exhibits then went outside to watch/listen to a ranger program. The ranger
informed us how Mount St. Helens erupted and how the volcano has remained
active. He told us that the volcano has had lots of small eruptions since the devastating
1980 eruption where Mount St. Helens blew herself apart. These smaller
eruptions have built up what is called a lava dome. This lava dome looks kind
of like the top of the Travelocity gnome’s hat…. Anyway another ranger
inside the observatory told us that Mount St. Helens is the most active volcano
in the Cascade Range due to seismic activity almost every single day. It’s rare
for Mount St. Helens to go day with out some sort of earthquake. The Cascade
Range is part of the eastern side of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a ring of land
and water consisting of hundreds of volcanoes.
The trip to Mt. Rainier took a while no thanks
to the GPS. When we got to the visitor center we picked up a trail map and
started the 4.6-mile hike. The hardest part was the 2-mile uphill climb at the
beginning of the trek. Lunch at Panoramic Point offered great views of a few
other mountains within the Cascade Range. The most fun part was sliding down a 200-foot
ice pack. We also found a smaller patch of snow and ice and proceeded to have a
small but exciting snowball fight. Mount Rainier is also an active volcano but
not as active as Mount St. Helens.
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| Snowball Fight!!!!! |
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| The steps before our big hike |
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| The snow pack we crossed. Those little dots are the people who walked it before us. |
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| The view we had while eating lunch |
Our next stop is at Aunt
Florence and Uncle Kings house in WA just north of Seattle.
Love,
J
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