Sunday, July 18, 2010

Then We Went to See a Volcano

Did I mention we went to see Mt. St Helens????  (I'm sort of out of order here as this day trip was right before seeing the beach with the shipwreck at Fort Stevens State Park.)  After having watched many documentaries on volcanoes and seeing one in particular on Mt St Helens....Ike was pretty keen on seeing it for himself.  We took a little detour to fit it in.  The blast area involved is really quite large and the state has put a lot of money into developing the area as a national monument.  There were ample places to pull over and picnic although the day proved to be a little over cast which limited our sight seeing  somewhat.  Once you arrive at the interpretive center (The Johnston Ridge Observatory)...there is a small gift shop and several interpretive displays with an $8 per adult fee to enter.  Your fee does allow you a few days of admittance, so you can come back if the day is too foggy...which happens sometimes. 
Unfortunately for us we did not have the luxury of hanging around for another day for the fog to lift and so we did our best to imagine its awesomeness.  If you encounter fog and do not have the time to come back to view Mt St Helens.......the $8 is a bit of a waste of money.  On the drive back down the mountain we stopped in at The Forest Learning Center since we spent less time admiring the volcano that we had planned on, and found it to be a very nicely done display....(and it was free which we appreciated).......well worth a visit. 
A little more drive brought us to Fort Stevens State park which was interesting with its battery still open for viewing.  The camp sites were quite private due to the thick brush growing there.  There was also a great view of the ocean and we saw lots of wildlife including some very tame deer and a friendly raccoon.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great photos and Ike sounds like a great kid.

Mary Bergfeld said...

It's a great area to visit with children. We've taken our grandson's three times but they've never been able to see the volcano because of fog. We are going to try again next month. Your guy looks like he was having a lot of fun. Have a great day. Blessings...Mary

LittleRed said...

Wow, I had no idea that being fogged in was that common. We did get a lot out of the Forest learning center though, so it was still a good visit!

Lori said...

What a nice vacation. I like that the deer were so close. What a nice experience.

LittleRed said...

I was very surprised by how close they let Ike get. It was a very nice area for camping:)