visionariblog: Mts St Helens & Rainier.....Impressive Country

Why Seattle?

My Brother in law and Sister in law live part-time in Seattle and had enticed us over to take us away in their beautiful trailer (32 ft)

So this blog is about going American Tiki Touring (4 Kiwi's)

But first let's round out the time spent in Seattle.....

Up on Broadway Street (most cities in USA seem to have a one of these!) they have rainbow pedestrian crossings......perfect for my rainbow socks (english spelling)

A Seattle cyclist heading to stock his stall down at Pike Street market...perhaps

Gastown, downtown in central Seattle...a happenin place...man!

another man, who I don't know... he's happenin too

The salmon ladder beside the Ballard ship lock built in 1917 going between Pugent Sound and Lake Washington ...a rise of 21 feet (depending on tides and level of Lake Washington)

Some classy sculptures near the salmon ladder

The Ballard Ship Lock...entertainment for the tourists and locals alike!

Here we are parking up at Harmony lakes near Mt St Helens

I saw the setting suns colour and skived off to take some photos

Mt St Helens blew it's top on 18th May1980..if you imagine the two mountain angles going up,

that's how high it was. There was a massive bulge going on, and even the scientists of the day didn't predict just how huge the landslide and eruption would be at the time.

61 people died, 200 square miles of forest flattened, nearly 2 million birds fish and mammals were consumed by the superheated gas cloud. 26 lakes were buried or evaporated.

Taken at Johnson Ridge Observatory, even at this distance observers, and experts here were killed.

We visited 3 Visitor centres in the area of Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier. The brunt of the blast and landslide, the force and heat killed everything in its path, however animals and insects underground came back within a month! One of the many brilliant displays in the museums attached to the visitor centers.

The huge land (mountain slip/spill) went into Spirit lake, filling it and expanding it and even today the massive amount of logs from this event are still seen floating on the surface of Spirit Lake. (the white stuff at the righthand end of the lake!)

The surrounding country slowly comes back from devastation

Even the Gas Stations (Petrol) on the pump has live TV going, incase you miss something on the 80 channels of rubbish (Trash)

We moved to another RV camp, this one not so popular, probably for obvious reasons as above and below....

The view at the top of Crystal Mountain, which is a ski area and has a chair lift to the top, complete with restaurant deck chairs, gift shop etc etc.

By chance we started talking to a local USA Park Ranger...I asked about the feather in her hat...was it and Eagle or a Falcon feather? No was her reply it's her pet turkey called Easter, who rides in the car with her.....sleeps with her.... after her husband left!!!! and is her "liscenced emotional support person"....we heard about that... more than once!

Here's Ron showing the way down the mountain

The first water we passed on the way down I checked around the mud at the edge of the lake for animal tracks (not humans)

I'd say these are bear and elk tracks

Outside a cafe in Packwood was this larger than life bike perhaps for Bigfoot!

Inside the Cafe, also larger than life was this toilet seat!

This was taken near the Ape Cave,

it is of very old lava flow, thousands of years ago

which flowed around trees, solidified

then over time the trees have rotted away.

This shows how some of the Lava tunnels are formed

Ape Cave a very large cave so long and dark no light gets in only recently discovered by a local farmer driving a tractor, .....we choose not to "go the hole way through"

Ron going the right way around the tree.

This was in the most beautifull area for camping with tents and or RV's though you'd need to book, with forest fires burning out of control, inside the National parks you could have camp fires ....strange!

This is Mt Rainier walking up the path from Paradise, a little late in the year for the wild flowers but still fabulous views. Then I walked downhill and had an ice-cream!

That's what I call PARADISE