Hunt Family Adventures : Hanging with Amy 2017: Part II

Mt St Helens and Johnston Ridge Observatory

On Monday the 11th we began our drive down to Portland on a beautiful day. It'd been very hazy for about a week due to recent forest fires, so it was nice to see blue skies again. Our original plan had been to get down to Oregon early and hike up the river through the Oneonta Gorge, but thanks to some teenagers starting a HUGE forest fire the week before, we had to change our plans. We then decided to do the Mt Ranier gondola ride, but that ended up being off the table too due to the forest fires in that area. It was such a warm, lovely summer, which was ideal for recreation but not so great for forest fires. Without our usual rain, they start more easily and take weeks to burn out.

Fortunately seeing Mt St Helens from the Johnston Ridge Observatory was still an option. Oscar and I had driven most of the road back in February 2015, but the final 9 miles and the observatory were closed for the season.

The view is pretty decent on the way in, but it gets quite a bit better once you arrive.

The observatory has a neat 3D topographical map that lights up whereever it's talking about as it tells the story of the most recent eruptions. We also watched a neat video with some cool graphics.

If you look closely at the pictures, you can see steam whisping up out of the mountain. It's a humbling reminder of the destructive power of nature.

Panorama from the observation deck

Amy really liked being able to see multiple volcanos at the same time. I'd told her it was Mt Ranier, but now I'm thinking it was our more eastern volcano, Mt Adams.

Oscar, Tyler, and I have also seen St Helens up close from Windy Ridge, which is an even better viewpoint in my opinion. There you get even closer to Mt St Helens and can also see Mt Ranier, Mt Adams, Mt Hood, and Spirit Lake. Unfortunately it takes an two additional hours to get there, and the drive is slow and a bit scary, so Johnston Ridge was definitely the better choice for us that day.

The two of us outside the observatory and Amy getting a picture of me taking a picture.

From there we headed down to Portland, getting stuck in some pretty nasty construction traffic on the way. We went out to eat with some other members of her conference, and I spent the night at her hotel before heading back up to Everett.

I came back at the end of her conference on Thursday and made it to the hotel room maybe a minute before she walked in. We needed to head out as soon as possible if we were going to get some hiking done before sunset. I asked Amy to drive since I'd just driven nearly 4 hours alone while staring at the sun the whole way.

Amy liked this neat building in downtown Portland - The Fair-Haired Dumbbell

We knew getting out of the city would be bad, but we had plenty of time, so we weren't worried at first. Then we got stuck in hideous traffic where we couldn't turn left. Too many people were going straight or turning right, so our lane was lucky if even one car got to turn. Amy had to get pretty aggressive to get us in, and even then we barely made it in time to finish our hike before dusk. A normally 50 minute drive turned into over 2 hours.

Amy had wanted to see the sunset over the Columbia River Gorge, but of course, we couldn't go anywhere on the Oregon side due to the recent forest fire. We ended up driving over to the Washington side instead and hiking up Beacon Rock.

View from the southwest side of Beacon Rock

It was a steep hike with lots of switchbacks, but fortuntely it wasn't too long. The views of the gorge were lovely, even with all the haze.

Little bird and a sign about the trail along the way.

View from the East side of Beacon Rock near the end of the hike

The trail first switchbacks up the west side of the rock before taking you around the east side for a bit. The view from there was gorgeous too. I'd love to hike it again on a clear day.

We made it to the top, though the view from there wasn't as impressive as the ones along the trail.

At the beginning of the hike is a gate that says it closes at dusk, so we had to hike quickly to make sure we were on the right side of the gate before they locked it. It's not something we were going to be able to get around without plummeting to our deaths. We were a bit stressed to get back in time, but we never saw anyone coming up to lock it. They must come well after dusk.

We drove back to Portland with just enough time to take the aerial tram for some great views of the city at night. It's a commuter train to the hospital because there's so little parking up there. We were starving after our hike, so there's actually an apple in my cheek in this picture of the left.