The Cascades Adventure - 1999

Text and photography by Julie Gilbert

This past summer, I had the most exciting, magnificent, and extraordinary time of my life! My family and I went to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Although to my parents, this trip was to see the cities' attractions. But for me, this trip wa s to see as many of the Cascade volcanoes as I could.

As we left LAX on United Airlines, my brother told me if there wasn't many clouds in the sky, we would be able to see all the features of California and Oregon. We were in luck! The sky was unusually clear. First, I got to see the San Andres Fault. Se eing it from the air is so different than on the ground. Then, a little bit later on, I saw Lassen Peak, but I couldn't get a really good view because there was cloud cover over it. Next, we flew over Mt. Shasta. It was such a great view! I could see dire ctly into the crater. As we flew into Oregon, we could see Crater Lake and Wizard Island. Sometime after that we passed over the Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson. Although we landed in Portland, in the distance we could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Hel ens, and Mt. Rainier.

Our first destination would be Mt. Hood. We took Highway 55 connecting to Highway 26 around Mt. Hood. We got so close to it! It was so majestic looking. It's funny how beautiful and amazing these volcanoes look. It's hard to imagine how dangerous and destructive they can be. When we got to Mt. St. Helens though, my thoughts changed. In some areas, it looked like the May 1980 eruption just took place only yesterday. As we drove to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, I saw that the entire area on the north side looked like a moonscape. There was nothing but broken logs and stumps from trees for miles. Later, I saw the area of the mudflows that had wiped out everything in its path. As we were walking around the visitor center, there were signs everywhere say ing to stay on the marked trails. Anyone who stepped off the trails would be fined. This was because new life is starting to grow. Someday, the area will once again be filled with forests of trees, plants, flowers, and animals. If people step on a tiny bud or a sprouting seed, it's like taking away life. Life near Mt. St. Helens grows every day. If we just left it alone, and let Mother Nature do her thing, Mt. St. Helens can turn into a magnificent place.

Next, we turned the car around and headed towards Coldwater Ridge Visitor's Center. The views there were incredible! Then, we went to the Forest Learning Center. We saw a fantastic movie about Mt. St. Helens showing the eruption and what happened after. The exhibits were great. They almost looked real! N ext, we drove to Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center where we saw where the debris avalanche rushed down the North Fork Toutle River area. We also saw a herd of elk down in that area. Finally, we came to the last visitor center. In the Mt. St. Helens' Visitor s Center, we saw all the history behind Mt. St. Helens. I must not forgot that some of the visitor centers had seimographs that measured any earthquakes in the area. That was very interesting because when we were at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, there w as a little bit of activity on the seismograph.

The next day we toured Lava Canyon. Lava Canyon is made up of old lava flows from Mt. St. Helens. It was a fascinating and beautiful place. On the sides of the trails, there were still piles of ash left from the May eruption. The Muddy River, although it got its name from the mudflow in the 1980 eruption, was now very clear and blue. In the distance, we could see Mt. Adams through the trees. Next, we drove to Ape Cave. We only had time to see the lower level because it takes like 1-3 hours for each of them. Even though it was close to 90 outside it was quite cold inside the cave. We were not fortunate enough to see any of the animals that live in the cave, but we did get a little wet from the stalactites that dripped water over our hands.

My brother had to leave that day so we dropped him off at Portland Airport. Then we headed on our way towards Everett. On our way, I pleaded with my parents to stop at Mt. Rainer. I definitely wanted to see the tallest volcano in the Cascades. And the re it stood, 14,411 feet. We took some excellent shots, but as we got closer, my camera could no longer fit the entire image in. When we arrived at the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center, there were chairs where people were just sitting and watching Mt. Rainer either to watch and enjoy the beauty or waiting for it to erupt! Then we went to the Paradise Visitor's Center. This place was really cool because it was shaped like a circle. You had to walk in a circle to see all the exhibits. The views of M t. Rainer were absolutely incredible! It was so huge! It's like looking at a sleeping giant, which is exactly what it, is. A couple of days letter when we were at the Seattle Space Needle, I took a couple of last shots of Mt. Rainer and Mt. St. Helens in the distance.