Rockin' Road Trip.
Sep. 15th, 2007 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
froggy_dearWe went to Mt. St. Helens. We discovered a waterfall. A good time was had.
First things first. This is my new landscape. They bound my sight on all sides. Foothills.
We decided to go to Mt. St. Helens today. We'd never been. So we went. Drive drive drive drive. We get to the park and the first big scenic overlook provides our first glimpse of the Volcano.
Do you see that little bit of white in front of the top of the Volcano? That's smoke. It was smoking for us. Very cool.
As we drive on, I am getting more and more freaked out. In many places there is no shoulder adjacent to a sheer drop off. I am panicking so bad I'm nearly in tears. Luckily Daniel is driving. I had this experience last time we were at Rainier, but there was only a few hundred feet of that there. In any case, we arrive safe and sound at Windy Ridge, which overlooks Spirit Lake. It also provides a much closer view of the Volcano.
From there we hike up this big hill to an overlook which is also the head of Trail 225. Going up the hill was the hard part, so we take the trail, which essentially winds along the edges of a hill. You're walking on primarily ash and pumice, which is very strange at that altitude. It did have amazing views of the lake.
At a different angle, you could see Rainier. Adams was visible from the parking lot. Many nice mountains around here. From the hike. I think it's pretty.
And here is where we turned around. See the trail? See the drop off? What you can't see is the continuing steep grade down the hundred plus feet to the lake.
IDIOT ALERT: We started going across anyway. I got nearly to the sunlit portions before Daniel came to his senses and said we should turn back. I make my way back.... in complete and utter terror. My legs started shaking badly. Which is not so good when you are trying to keep steady footing. Thankfully, the rockface fractures in such a way as to provide useful bits to hold onto. I do not consider this trail safe at this point, for the record. I mean, we were on a narrow trail on the side of a hill the entire time, but at that point it was extreme.
But we got out of it safe. When we got back to the main part of the trail, we found a nice downed tree to sit on. We had some water and carrot sticks, and I knit a little bit.
We discovered that, while we'd been hiking and defying death, Mt. St. Helens had been replaced with the Scottish Highlands.
It's difficult to describe how beautiful the clouds were. We could see clouds being blown over the hills, like ghosts floating before us. It was just amazing amazing.
Driving down the mountain, desolation:
On our way down we stopped at Meta Lake:
As far as I could tell, there was nothing Meta about it.
And that concludes the Mount St. Helens portion of this post.
As we were driving back on Hwy 25, not very far from the junction with 99, I noticed a lonely sign which said "Iron Creek Falls, 500 feet." Waterfall? 500 feet from the road? I'm in!
And oh my, oh my, it was so beautiful
If it wasn't for the conifers and the chill, I might have thought this waterfall was in Fiji. I mean, it looks like there ought to be some swimwear models under it. It was a very dramatic waterfalls, and I'm very glad we found it. We were able to clamber and monkey our way all over in that little pull off; it's always fun to explore places like that and discover paths up and down and across.
And those are the interesting pictures of the day. Washington State is so cool.
Oh, and on the way home, by now after dark, we pulled into this scenic overlook. The Parking lot is pitch black, but we could look up and see the Milky Way and thousands of stars. I haven't seen stars like that since I lived in Waldo, and maybe not since one night in North Dakota.
First things first. This is my new landscape. They bound my sight on all sides. Foothills.
We decided to go to Mt. St. Helens today. We'd never been. So we went. Drive drive drive drive. We get to the park and the first big scenic overlook provides our first glimpse of the Volcano.
Do you see that little bit of white in front of the top of the Volcano? That's smoke. It was smoking for us. Very cool.
As we drive on, I am getting more and more freaked out. In many places there is no shoulder adjacent to a sheer drop off. I am panicking so bad I'm nearly in tears. Luckily Daniel is driving. I had this experience last time we were at Rainier, but there was only a few hundred feet of that there. In any case, we arrive safe and sound at Windy Ridge, which overlooks Spirit Lake. It also provides a much closer view of the Volcano.
From there we hike up this big hill to an overlook which is also the head of Trail 225. Going up the hill was the hard part, so we take the trail, which essentially winds along the edges of a hill. You're walking on primarily ash and pumice, which is very strange at that altitude. It did have amazing views of the lake.
At a different angle, you could see Rainier. Adams was visible from the parking lot. Many nice mountains around here. From the hike. I think it's pretty.
And here is where we turned around. See the trail? See the drop off? What you can't see is the continuing steep grade down the hundred plus feet to the lake.
IDIOT ALERT: We started going across anyway. I got nearly to the sunlit portions before Daniel came to his senses and said we should turn back. I make my way back.... in complete and utter terror. My legs started shaking badly. Which is not so good when you are trying to keep steady footing. Thankfully, the rockface fractures in such a way as to provide useful bits to hold onto. I do not consider this trail safe at this point, for the record. I mean, we were on a narrow trail on the side of a hill the entire time, but at that point it was extreme.
But we got out of it safe. When we got back to the main part of the trail, we found a nice downed tree to sit on. We had some water and carrot sticks, and I knit a little bit.
We discovered that, while we'd been hiking and defying death, Mt. St. Helens had been replaced with the Scottish Highlands.
It's difficult to describe how beautiful the clouds were. We could see clouds being blown over the hills, like ghosts floating before us. It was just amazing amazing.
Driving down the mountain, desolation:
On our way down we stopped at Meta Lake:
As far as I could tell, there was nothing Meta about it.
And that concludes the Mount St. Helens portion of this post.
As we were driving back on Hwy 25, not very far from the junction with 99, I noticed a lonely sign which said "Iron Creek Falls, 500 feet." Waterfall? 500 feet from the road? I'm in!
And oh my, oh my, it was so beautiful
If it wasn't for the conifers and the chill, I might have thought this waterfall was in Fiji. I mean, it looks like there ought to be some swimwear models under it. It was a very dramatic waterfalls, and I'm very glad we found it. We were able to clamber and monkey our way all over in that little pull off; it's always fun to explore places like that and discover paths up and down and across.
And those are the interesting pictures of the day. Washington State is so cool.
Oh, and on the way home, by now after dark, we pulled into this scenic overlook. The Parking lot is pitch black, but we could look up and see the Milky Way and thousands of stars. I haven't seen stars like that since I lived in Waldo, and maybe not since one night in North Dakota.