Our Living Planet

Mouth of the Columbia River

We found hot and limitless showers at Fort Stevens campground.  What a treat!  Rain, however, continued to come in waves.  In between, we were able to enjoy some of the sights.

At Fort Stevens, the Columbia River and the Pacific ocean converge.  Roxanne took a swim in the chilly water.

We also found the remains of the Peter Iredale shipwreck...

The Peter Iredale shipwreck at Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

With rain continuing intermittently, we decided to head further north up Highway 101.  To our surprise, we discovered a turnoff to the Mount St. Helen's visitor center.  Since our new motto is NOT to pass up interesting places, we made a U-turn.

The lower visitor's center would only be open for another hour, but we stopped and enjoyed a movie and learned about the 1980 eruption.  We also discovered that the national park visitor's center would be open until 6 p.m.  While it was another 47 miles up the road, we decided that we had nothing but time!

While storm clouds continued to gather and wane, we drove to the Mount St. Helen's Visitor Center.

View from Mount St. Helen's Visitor Center

Had the view been clear, the sign shows what we would have seen... a volcano with the entire north side blown out.  It must have been something... God rearranging this space and place.  We read about harrowing escapes, rescues, and tragic endings, as well as how the valley has rerouted and recovered.  In the space of a moment, this valley was changed forever.  As the visitor center movie reminded us, we are on a living planet... and what a planet it is!!!

We decided to drive to the old growth forest at Lewis and Clark State Park in Washington.  Again, we arrived during the dark and rain and determined that we simply had to plan a bit better in the future!

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