Marley Makes 3

Columbia Riverfront RV, Woodland, WA

6.30.26 Our campground was right on the Columbia River. Big/HUGE ships and barges going by!

7.01.26 We headed out at 7:30 am because we planned to see BOTH Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens today! It's going to be a very long day! Of course there are no rest stops in the wilderness and we were driving through this little town called Elbe, smaller than Roxbury, and we saw this building and thought, Great!

A public restroom! LOL...we pulled up and we started to laugh so hard!!! It was their Post Office!!! Luckily there was a small gas station across the street to use. Even Marley had to go after all that!

In the same very small town, there was all these restored train cars sitting on an old track. There was this pizza place called Mt. Rainier Railroad Dining Company, a small bar, and several of them were motel rooms, part of the Hobo Inn.

We went across a bridge and the water of this river was really this color! It was this aqua/turquoise color. Come to find out, it's this color from the glacial run-off.

Facts you want to know...From Google AI "The turquoise and milky-blue color of the rivers near Mount Rainier National Park is caused by "glacial flour". This superfine sediment is created by massive glaciers acting like giant pieces of sandpaper, grinding up the mountain's bedrock as they slowly move.

When this glacial meltwater rushes down into streams and lakes, the tiny suspended rock particles—often just microns in size—stay suspended in the water. When sunlight hits these microscopic particles, they scatter the shorter, blue and green wavelengths of the light spectrum back toward your eyes while absorbing the longer, red and yellow wavelengths."

We're driving along and there was a small herd of elk just standing on the side of the road grazing away. Al pulled over so I could snap a few photos!

There is nothing wrong with my phone camera. It's jut this foggy and hazy.

Mount Rainier is a huge, active stratovolcano in the Cascade Mountain Range, with a height of 14,410 feet. It is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous U.S. and the highest point in the Cascade Mountains. Some of the glaciers of ice can be up to 750 feet deep! Steam still escapes from inside the mountain because it’s still an active volcano.

Al walked the Narada Falls Trail

On the way to the Visitor Center we came across a viewpoint for Narada Falls.

Lower Falls

Upper Falls

Narada Falls is 168 feet high and runs over lava rock that was cooled by glaciers.

FACT: Snowfields and inactive glaciers melt into clear water.

Active glaciers grind rock into fine powder called glacial flour. The fine powder suspends in the melt-off giving a gray milky appearance to streams originating from active glaciers.

We went to Mount Rainier National Park first. It was so cloudy and we were literally IN the clouds. We couldn’t see the peak at all. We are way up toward the snowcap where it says You are Here-Paradise. Then Al hiked the dotted line trail up toward the glacier. We did go to the visitor center and it was so crowded!

Al did a short 1 mile hike on the Myrtle Falls trail above the visitor center going heavenward. Marley and I stayed warm.

Mount Rainier is in the clouds!

Do you see it? The mountain is back there!

A little wildlife

We had to imagine this view we were supposed to see!

A very small lower section of the mountain peeking through.

This is a very small portion we saw through the clouds! The mountain is MUCH higher!

A waterfall coming down from the glacier that we drove past.

A cool tunnel.

This tunnel looked like it was just blasted through the rock.

A big tree!

Reflection Lake

Mount St. Helens

We headed toward Mount St. Helens to view the crater per a back way in from the campground manager. The road was crazy!!! Full of potholes and sink holes and undercuts. The road was literally sinking and we had to drive slow and on the other side at times.

We came across two creepy guys we didn't trust so we stayed alert!

We finally got to the top and couldn’t see the crater because it was in the clouds too!!! What a day.

This is the viewpoint from Windy Ridge at the very north end of Spirit Lake. It was cold and windy! The red arrow on the map below shows where we were. The two creepy guys finally disappeared while we were up here maybe because there were other people around. Thank goodness we didn't run across them on the creepy gravel logging "banjo" road later!

You can see the lower part of the snowcap right above the mountains in the clouds.

Spirit lake

On the way back to Mona...Google told us the road was closed and rerouted us…oh my. That was a huge mistake!!!

The road was one lane, gravel, dirt and mud. Trees and brush were down all along it. Our truck barely fit through. The banjoes were replaying loud and clear back there!!! If you don't know what I mean, you should watch the movie "Deliverance." The classic 1972 survival drama "Deliverance," starring Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight, is currently available to watch on Netflix.

Al had to get out and move branches and we could only drive 10 miles an hour and less for over 8 miles. That road just would NOT END!!! Thank goodness we didn't meet the two creepy guys back here!!!

Potholes, bad ones everywhere. I had to watch and say “On your left! On my right! Branch on the right!”

Finally…pavement and civilization?! But the road was not much better. Got back to Mona late and ate ice cream for supper! Oh…and the big window shade broke in front of my desk.

Come to find out a Ranger told us the next day that the road was open but Google must not have caught up yet and the campground manager told us there is usually a gate across that road because it is actually owned by the Weyerhaeuser Logging Company and if you go on those roads you should always carry a chain saw. Hmmm...OK that information was a little late in coming!

7.02.26 The next day....

We drove to the other side of Mount St. Helens.

Mount St. Helens from the Visitor Center

Many displays of the “event.” A boardwalk and views of the Volcano. Met another couple from Janesville, WI who are out wandering too.

The “Scorch Zone” created a standing dead forest. We still see the standing dead trees today. The lateral blast uprooted and swept away trees that once lived 0-7.5 miles away. The landslide from the blast poured into Spirit Lake burying the lakebed and raising the water’s surface by 200 feet. It buried and dammed the lake’s outlet so that 2 years after the blast, the lake surface rose another 60 feet from snow melt and rain. To save the communities downstream, the Corps of Engineers bored an 11-foot tunnel under the landslide to give the lake an outlet.

Lava Domes are like caps on top of volcanoes. The domes form when slow flowing lava erupts out of volcanic vents, piles up, cools and solidifies into rock. Mt St. Helens continues to build domes today and will continue into the future.

Days after the May 18, 1980 eruption, a new lava dome began forming in the crater. A smaller eruption soon destroyed the dome. This cycle happened several times until the mountain entered a more stable phase of dome building toward the end of 1980. Over the next six years, the dome grew about 1000 feet, sometimes as much as 10 feet per hour. The Volcano slept until 2004 when it erupted and built that lava dome another 500 feet. The volcano has been sleeping since 2008 and continues as of July 5, 2026.

The 1980 eruption destroyed 70% of the glacial mass on Mount St. Helens. Over time, a new horseshoe-shaped glacier formed in the center. Even though it’s at a lower elevation, the glacier continues to grow thanks to the shade from the center’s steep walls. It is one of the few glaciers in the world that is expanding rather than shrinking.