Mt. St. Helens

Brayden has long been a fan of any kind of science, including volcanoes,

so we took him to Mt. St. Helen's on our way to Grandma's house.

(Actually, Grandma drove down and met us there which was lots of fun).

The visitor center was built around this tree. All of the stumps on the mountain have this "shredded" look. None of them burned, because they were buried in ash so quickly that there wasn't enough oxygen to allow them to burn. The trees look like toothpicks all around the mountain.

Gotta have the family photo in front of the mountain to prove we were there. It was a gorgeous day. Not too hot, not too cold, and CLEAR! We went to Mt. St. Helens when Brayden was 9 mos old (with Grandma and Grandpa G.) and it was so foggy we couldn't see the mountain.

This time when the movie ended and the curtains opened up we were staring straight into the crater (instead of clouds)...very cool.

We had Aunt Elizabeth with us, also. It was good to spend some time with her. The boys are wearing their Jr. Ranger badges that they earned. The rangers could tell that our boys were really trying to do their best to learn, and fill out their packets, so they gave them extra stuff with their badges. They each got a certificate, a copy of the seismograph chart from the eruption, and postcards.

Some interesting facts:

Mt. St. Helens was active from 2000-2004 with several small eruptions. The dome in the middle of the crater kept getting bigger, but in 2004 it quieted down.

The 1980 blast was relatively small compared to other volcano eruptions, but the ash circled the entire globe. 56 people died, but 150 others were rescued from the mountain.

Mt. Rainier (which is further north) has been having small earthquakes, just like Mt. St. Helen's had before the 1980 eruption. If it erupts in our lifetime, it will be much worse because of it's location and the large cities that surround it.

Brayden was able to earn a cub scout medallion for visiting the volcano.

And this is my favorite:

The elevation of Mt. St. Helen's is just over 8300 ft.

I laughed out loud when I learned this, because we are over 8000 ft.

every time we drive over the mountain to get to Wal-Mart.