Day 19 - Mount St. Helen's and Mt Rainier

 Saturday, July 1, 2023

Washington 

Levi's and us were minutes apart from each other for our night's stay, so we met to do the day's activities together. 

➡️ Mount St. Helen's and Mt. Rainier. 

Mount St Helen's... the cycle of chaos and creation, is their mantra for this experience. It really impacted me because it's been a thread that I've thought quite a bit about, as I think of the mystery and how words fail to fully articulate the dichotomy of new life and rebirth that comes out of devastation. 

How hard and good coexist. And the reality that full life can come after devastation and in so many ways because of it. 

To know you survived - you fought through the hard - you learn - you rise above.

- and out of the devastation, new life - different beauty - restore and refresh.

- and to experience the depth of one is to know the height of another - peace, joy, new life and the soul soars!  More fully and deeply.

That day, years ago, the top of this mountain blew off.  It's now flat-topped.  Now beauty is seen, differently than before that morning, changed and yet glorious once again.

It still releases steam.

The miracle of life

When Titus and his family was here years ago on their trip, it was not long after Mount St. Helen's erupted.  The foliage along the road was devastation, today it is green.

We were not able to get to the rim because of a mudslide, so that site/lookout couldn't be reached.

Driving on to Mt. Ranier

The roads were so wavy, up and down - Brandon's description - "It's like riding a horse!" 

And this was our longest wait time so far - approx 1 1/2 hr wait! 🙄

We'd get out and converse with the folks ahead of us, ride alongside, or walk beside.

or take pictures of roadside scenery

or even take the time to buy a waffle stick treat

Of course, soon after he gets out, we move quite a ways (before we'd inch our way along between long stops) but we soon were stopped again.  He had to jog or go for a bit of a walk to catch up. 🏃☺️

Tasty treat!

or we find a different seat

and even bop the volleyball, (walking beside as we move forward in spurts.)

FINALLY

This mountain was quite snow covered and had ice patches and glaciers. (compared to actual Glacier Park, I thought this had way more... but I guess only one mountain😊🤷‍♀️)

The blue-ish hue is ice.

Comments as we were driving...

Carlin - "are we going to hike? I feel like we're getting Yosemite vibes!" (just driving around)

The roads were quite curvy as usual and the drop offs quite close to the edge of the road...

Titus - "Shall we get closer to the edge?"

Derek (we switched two people and he was with us) "yeah"

T - "Oh, there's no white line"

D - "so that means we can get closer"

Sheldon - "Oh the creek looks like a white line!"

(and we're high on the mountain - creek IS FAR BELOW!)

crazy moments

Finally on a hike, boys!  

And walking over a snow pile on the reflection pool trail.

Reflection pool

These plumes were so fascinating.  I enjoyed them.

interesting name for a port-a-pot

Another hike - Box Canyon trail

Here we families go our separate ways.  We travel on through Washington to our campground. 

Evening sun's highlights

such a mixture - first so much blue and water and green, now the rugged beauty

setting sun

another dark arrival

So I took the picture the next morning.  

This was also the time we arrived too late to check in and left too early to do it in the morning. We never saw the people. 😊