Monday, August 6, 2012

Wild Wonderful Washington IV: Mt. St Helens and Mt. Ranier

 Mt. Rainer was more spectacular than I thought he (?)would be and it was interesting to see him pop in and out of the fog/clouds all day.  You would look at one point and he was just shining so majestically and then the next 5 minutes... GONE without a trace!  Paradise Valley definitely earned its name, but we didn’t love the crowds in Paradise.  So, we did one short hike there and then headed out for the Sunrise Area of the park to camp/hike.  While up there we hiked to a frozen lake around 8pm and had some serenity and nice pink views of the surrounding mountains and Ranier at Sunset.   To look out over the horizon at the Cascades reminded me so much of what I believe heaven will certainly look like when the New Earth is established. I can’t wait.  Puffy clouds and mountains as far as the eye could see. It was as if we could have walked out of on them. 
Saw these signs all over! 










Love these rainbows!












Mr. Bear acted like he was starving.  Just pawing at the ground like crazy.
On the Way to Carter Ralls, Mt. Ranier in background
 
As we approached Mt. St. Helens I was really worried that the fog would be so think that we could not see anything.  My nightmare was pretty true for the first 30 mins and then when we reached the top things really cleared off so we could get a nice view of the crater. I learned a lot up there!  I did not know that the mountain is basically rebuilding itself and there have been many mini-eruptions building up lava tubes so that the crater is filling in.  It was interesting to read how quickly nature is healing itself and how well the wildlife returned and adapted. We did some see elk on our way up to the top.  They are such beautiful creatures  to observe. 
Elk at Mt. St. Helens

Elk hiding in this pic!



pre-eruption

post-eruption



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