Day 14: Mt. St. Helens & Mt. Rainier, WA

Today was the day to explore two very cool mountains in the state of Washington. Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier are only about an hour and a half apart, so we planned to visit both of these today; we had strategically picked Packwood to stay in overnight because of its location almost completely smack dab between the two sites. We left the lovely Hotel Packwood early in the morning and drove south towards Mt. Saint Helens. The volcano erupted back in 1980 and created an incredible amount of damage. Even though the eruption happened 30 years ago, the mountain is still being affected by the eruption; scientists here have the unique opportunity of watching how a habitat damaged by ash and smoke slowly resurrects itself into a functioning ecosystem. Just picture this: As one of the explosions blows laterally out of the side of Mt. St. Helens, all the snow on that side of the mountain instantly melts into thousands and thousands of gallons of water. This torrent of water whips down the mountain and blows all the fallen timber in front of it down into the small lake at the base. As a matter of fact, SO much water rushed into this lake at one time that scientists say the lake rose instantly by 200 HUNDRED FEET. We were shocked to see that even after these 30 years, thousands of logs are still floating in the lake below. Since temperatures are so low, the logs don't really rot or decompose in the water. The lake’s water level increased SO much that scientists and engineers worked together and formulated a plan to keep the body of water from bursting over its natural dam, washing away the mountainside. They used a huge earth-drilling machine and drilled sideward into the lake to install a mechanism almost like a sump-pump to keep the water from overflowing. The temperature outside was about forty-five degrees, but it was probably much colder at the top of Mt. St. Helens, which stands at 8,365 feet in elevation. There were not many opportunities for hiking as we drove further up the mountain, so we enjoyed feeding the ridiculously plump chipmunks at most of the scenic overlooks. Every person that comes to visit the mountain must feed these critters, because they were extremely fat and very brave.

We drove through Packwood again on our way to Mt. Rainier, and the landscape was a bit different as we neared the national park. We were saddened by news we had heard the night before: a climber was lost on the mountain while climbing with his friends and two days had already passed. At 14,00 feet, Mt. Rainier, is the highest peak in Washington; sadly, every year a handful of climbers become lost or fall while rappelling the snowy slopes and perish. A park ranger we spoke to informed us that the climber would most likely not be found since the top of the mountain is almost constantly surrounded by fog, making it both dangerous and difficult to navigate a helicopter in search of missing climbers. With this information, we stayed put on the ground, and marveled at Mt. Rainier from a distance. There are only a few paved roads to the base of the mountain, and to get closer you must hike and climb. The higher you ascend, the more technical things become, requiring ropes and teams of experienced climbers.

For the next three nights, we are staying with friends of friends, the Colemans, who live in beautiful Tacoma. We are very lucky to have such friendly people in our lives. We grilled out with some company, and were able to watch an early firework show that was taking place at the baseball stadium - we had a view from the backyard!