St. Helens/ Oregon

Wow, well, Mt. St. Helens was amazing! I hadn't been in about four years, and I had no idea it would have changed that much! I mean, I should have, because we used to notice changes every year when we were going that often, but... wow. It's green! There are so many plants that you can barely see the shattered trees anymore. Although the pumice plain in front of the mountain is still fairly bare, everywhere else it seemed there were plants growing! It was just incredible. And the mountain has built itself an entire new lava dome! In just a couple months, and it's as large as the old one, which took it six years to build. It's crazy. They said if it keeps up this rate, it will be back to its previous height in 30 years. Which is just incredible. Anyway, I took tons of pictures, I'll put a few here, but if you're a geology person, or you just want to see more, you'll have to ask. :)


The mountain gets active with a puff of steam for us. (View from Coldwater Ridge) 


The hummocks, giant pieces of the mountain that were deposited during the blast. It's weird knowing you're walking on what used to be the top of a mountain. 


So many plants! This area used to be just ash and pumice, and a few spread out plants around all the blown down logs, and stumps. The power of nature to recover is very impressive. 


Oregon was lots of fun. We went horseback riding in this awesome canyon, hiking all over the place, to fossil beds which were gorgeous, and we played miniature golf (during which I managed to get stuck in five sand traps on one hole. The worst one was heart-shaped. I think it truly loved me and wanted me to stay forever. Unfortunately, I couldn't comply. He just wasn't the sand trap I'm looking for.). I also introduced my family to Settlers, and although I won all but two or three games, out of what felt like 20 (it was more like 10, but still only over four days), my family adores the game, which is awesome, because it's a good game. I also got Puerto Rico, and it's coming back to school with me, so we'll have awesome game night. :) Anyway, as all family vacations, we were constantly busy, but it was a lot of fun.


The colors in the clay by the fossil beds were just impressive. It's all 33-40 million years old. 


Here's another set of the painted rocks. Just gorgeous, and the water erosion that made them ripply just makes it better.