Pacific Northwest September Travelog #10
Mount St. Helens National Monument - Sun, 4 Sep 2022, 5:15pm

"What else should we do in the park after hiking Johnston Ridge to Devil's Point?" I asked a ranger at the visitors center ( Read more... )

Pacific Northwest September Travelog #9
Mount St. Helens National Monument - Sun, 4 Sep 2022, 12pm

Sunday morning we drove from our hotel in Vancouver, WA to Mount St. Helens. We've been to the park a few times before, but in different areas. Four weeks ago we visited Windy Ridge, on the east side. Years ago we visited Lava Canyon and its ( Read more... )

Pacific Northwest September Travelog #5
Northwoods, WA - Sat, 3 Sep 2022, 3:30pm

Our plan to visit 5 waterfalls today on a big driving loop around the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington got off to a strong start with the stunning (if clumsily named) Falls Creek Trail Falls. Right after that, though, the plan started to unravel. After ( Read more... )

Pacific Northwest September Travelog #11
Vancouver, WA - Sun, 4 Sep 2022, 9:30pm

Day 2 of our three-day weekend trip to Washington has been another tiring day, much like Day 1. Today we visited Mount St. Helens National Monument. Yes, we were at Mount St. Helens on our previous trip just four weeks ago. But that was at Windy Ridge, on the east ( Read more... )

This evening is the start of a holiday weekend: Labor Day in the US. Of course we're traveling! We're going to back to the Pacific Northwest, with a flight to Portland, OR, in another hour of so.

"Weren't you just there a few weeks ago?" some might ask. Indeed we were! We visited the Pacific Northwest four week ago. We're kind of even starting ( Read more... )

439 steps. That's the answer to the question you might have asked in my previous post, looking up at the staircase ascending Windy Ridge. There are 439 steps in the staircase. I was concerned for a bit it might be like climbing the Koko Head Tramline in Hawaii, which left me wrecked for several days, but it was way easier. Partly that's because I ( Read more... )

On Friday afternoon (a week ago now) we visited Mount St. Helens. It's a volcano in the US state of Washington that erupted in 1980. It was the most destructive eruption in US history, killing 57 people and flattening everything for miles. Likely the death toll would have been higher except that a series of small eruptions occurred from March that ( Read more... )

Pacific Northwest August Travelog #2
Puyallup, WA - Fri, 5 Aug 2022, 11:30pm

Whew, it's been quite a day of hiking in Washington! I'd say we began by getting up bright and early but we didn't. After only getting to bed at 2am after a late night arrival last night we were in no mood to get up with our 6:30/6:45am alarms. I swatted the snooze on ( Read more... )

Pacific Northwest Travelog 6
Mt St. Helens, WA. Sunday, 2 July 2017. 3pm.Sunday we drove around the southern flank of Mt. St. Helens to the trailhead for Lava Canyon. This trail is not only beautiful but offers an interesting geology lesson ( Read more... )

Pacific Northwest Travelog 5
Mt St. Helens, WA. Sunday, 2 July 2017. 1pm.

After getting in to our hotel late last night (technically, early this morning!) we predictably slept in a bit this morning. We  got up a bit before 9, took a soak in the hot tub, and didn't hit the road until nearly 10. That's not a problem for today, though, as we don't ( Read more... )