Rachel and I took the troop on a weekend getaway to Mt. Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument. It was the first time we’ve ever taken all of the kids—in fact it was the first time Ray and I have ever been camping together. That seems hard to believe but she has always stayed home with Emma and Luke before.
It was obvious when we left yesterday that we were not going to have a very good view of the volcano because of the weather, so we took the opportunity to explore some of the surrounding attractions. We ended up camping just south of St. Helens at a beautiful site called Beaver Bay—it is early in the season so we had the place to ourselves. As you can see the "beavers" were as busy as ever.
After breaking camp in the morning we headed to Two Forests, so called because of the fabulous contortions of rock formed two thousand years ago when a river of lava swiftly encased the trees in the area—the first forest.
The second forest is of course the gorgeous current growth.
Luke and I are standing in a tree “mold.” The mold is essentially the cast of the tree that was standing here that day two thousand years ago when the volcano erupted.
Trees that were lying on the ground were covered and when the charred remains erroded, tunnels were left behind. The kids had a blast crawling through them. You could actually feel the impression left in the rock from the bark.
Convenient to Two Forests is Ape Cave. While there are no simians, neither are there bats, which was nice as there was no guano. Ape Cave has the distinction of being the longest “lava tube” in the world.
Here we are entering the cave. We walked for a mile and a half (round trip) through a tunnel formed when the outer surface of the lava cooled and the hot inner core continued to flow, leaving a hollow cylinder. It was geologically a very different sort of cave than other’s I’ve visited—we didn’t have to have that “which ones are stalagmites and which are stalactites” conversation because there weren’t either.
Note: This entry was written on my laptop in the van on the way home. I am posting it via my cell phone as we drive down 512. How dern cool is that!!?
Pretty dern cool!!! I really appreciate your command of the cyberspace wonders. I wasjust writing about a GGGgrandpa who rode for the pony express in l850's, Ephraim Hanks would probably be just like you John if he lived in 2004. Thanks again. Love Grandma Rackham
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