Mt. St. Helens

We had a perfectly gorgeous few days last week to go camping and spend a day at Mt. St. Helens. It is an incredible spot...the various visitors centers, learning center and interpretive center are so well done, with extremely knowledgeable park rangers as well. (On this trip to the northwest, we have been highly impressed with the park rangers from the various branches of our national government who work at these sites.) We live in the tornado part of the country, I know...but I think I prefer that to living in the path of a volcano. The destruction that MSH brought on the countryside is unbelievable...rather than erupting out of the top of the volcano, as was originally expected, professionals watched as a great big bulge began to grow out of the side of MSH...and when it erupted, it literally blew out the side of the volcano, levelling trees like matchsticks for miles, many of which can still be seen lying on the ground, burying Spirit Lake and giving birth to a new Spirit Lake at a higher level, above the debris that the volcano deposited on the old lake bed. School children who live in the valley of MSH and Mt. Ranier do not have tornado drills, but rather volcano drills - involving seeing how fast you can run and vacate the area, so I was told by a retired school teacher in our church.

Thanks for staying with us on our journeys...we feel we have really had the opportunity to see this part of the country, and have enjoyed all of it. In our family, Jo & Scott have celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary, and Carla is back at work at her church following a most successful sabbatical journey all around the US. You can read about her journey on her blog at

http://cjtacky.blogspot.com/ We'll be talking to you later!!