r/PacificNorthwest

...And here's the rest..

Framed waterfalls. Fissures in the rock. Big falls into the ice that makes the ice caves. Very small ice cave opening. There's a (very small) person to the right of the opening, by the grey ice. Ribbon like falls. Wonderful natural area. Enchanted Valley. Lovely reflections! (I love lovely reflections). Note the ripples in this one, a fish came up and grabbed an insect just before I clicked. Still waters run psychedelic. Great day in the hills. Bugs weren't bad on the trail, they were quite bad in the parking lot. The skunk cabbage was almost all in the secondary stage, no odor (major bummer). In the Mt Dickerman reflection shot in the preceding Part 1 post one can see a lone yellow skunk cabbage spadix standing out of the water. What else, the Stilly was quite low already. Not much volume left. We're going to have a terrible drought this summer. Peace.

Taken last month at Cannon Beach.

Don't know if anyone else saw or posted this, or how old it is. Found it while out and about with family on Grayland Beach

Monday I went for a motorcycle ride to the Big 4 picnic area. It was more of a 'going for a cycle ride' day than a day hiking day. I did do the Ice Caves trail, a very modest day hike ~ 2.2 miles round trip. The ice caves , the big attraction of this hike, are not formed yet. There's a little opening showing at the bottom of the ice. I have 22 pictures I want to share and since the Reddit limit is 20 I'm breaking up this post into 2. Therefore there are 11 pics here. 😁. A few notes on the pics:

Big 4 massif(?), boardwalk. Waterfalls! Waterfalls Galore. Big 4 in the melt off season is a spectacular spot. The center non contiguous fall is at least 1500 feet, maybe closer to two thousand. Mt Dickerman with reflection. South Fork of the Stillaguamish River. Aluminum foot bridge over the river. Ice Creek flowing thru the woods to the river. Lovely. Beautiful mossy forest. Big blow down on the trail. These trees were not here the last time I walked this trail, which wasn't long ago, last month (?).

I only have Hood from Oregon and I’m missing Baker in Washington.

Beautiful place

On the morning of May 18, 1980, I was fishing in a bass tournament on Silver Lake in Cowlitz County, Washington. These photos were taken by a fellow bass club member (I’m sorry I no longer know his name) and show my dad and me fishing about 30 minutes before the eruption of Mount St. Helens, and then of the ash cloud.

We were idling through the lily pads on our way back to the resort when we saw the initial eruption begin. We never heard a thing. Maybe the boat motor masked it, or maybe some strange acoustic effect carried the sound elsewhere.

When we reached the resort, it was total chaos. People were running around like the world was ending, loading campers, pulling boats out of the water, and trying to leave.

We heard the I-5 bridge over the Toutle River had been closed, so my dad figured we weren't going anywhere for a while. My cousin, my dad, and I motored over to a small store by the lake, bought some beer, then sat in the boat out in the middle of the lake watching the eruption unfold.

The ash cloud spread above us but never reached our area since most of it traveled east. The cloud blocked the morning sun, the temperature dropped, and lightning flashed inside the ash plume.

Eventually, we returned to the resort and learned the interstate had reopened. We packed up the boat and camper and headed home.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We went there hoping to maybe see a little steam rise from the mountain. Instead, we witnessed history.

Do you have a Mt St Helens story?

Happy to be back on the west coast!

Saturday morning - so crazy how far out you could go with a -1.7ft low tide