Day 19 - To Toledo, WA and Mt. St. Helens

We woke up really late this morning - after 9 AM.  It was still raining.  After a breakfast of oatmeal, bananas and strawberries, we started packing up the camper.  Because of the rain, it took much longer than usual to pack up - as everything was wet and covered with fir needles.

Our Campsite at Lewis & Clark state park

Bird managed to get her teeth into something that didn't agree with her, so we also got to wash her soiled feathers.

We finally got moving sometime in the afternoon and dove to Toledo, "The Gateway to Mount Saint Helens".  From Toledo, we headed up to mount St. Helens.  The drive up was interesting, but the rain kept moving in and out.  During a break in the rain, we stopped at the Sediment retention area, where they're trying to slow the progress of the now very slow avalanche of debris from the eruptions.

That's a very tall mound of slow moving ash & volcanic debris

At the Elevation 3800 foot sign, there was snow by the side of the road.  The fog was also thick enough that one often couldn't see past the road

The fog took over

Every once in a while, the mountains would peek through - delivering an occasional awe inspiring sight:

The fog lifts a little to let us see this

By the time we got up to the Johnson Observatory, the rain had become constant again and there was no view to be had.  So we decided to come back the next day and headed back to Toledo to camp in their very nice city park.  The park has camping, a really large outdoor kitchen and a covered picnic area.  They also have hot showers!  I never would have thought that I would be so excited by showers.

Bird was still not having problems so Sharon went off to use the hot water to wash her hind end.  I then remembered that I'm carrying imodium, so we dosed Bird.

We went to bed fairly early, planning to get an early start to go back up the mountain and maybe see something more this time.