Love, Hugs, and Coffee Mugs: MOUNTAIN!!!

So the first week of my two-week program was focused on rafting which I updated y'all on last time around. The second week was about caving and camping! We traveled with another group to a campground near Mt. Saint Helens and the views while driving and even at our site were once again postcard perfect. I don't think that the PNW gets enough TRUE credit for the beauty it offers ones' senses. So here are some shots of our campground where we pitched our tents and cooked our meals on propane stoves and played super fun no tell games:

We drove to our site on the first day of our trip (after a quick jaunt to the car repair place to plug a tire on a 12-passenger van....no big deal) and then unpacked and got situated. Then our adventures really began on the first full day out which took us to various points around Mt. Saint Helens including: the Trail of Two Forests, the Ape Caves, and the Lava Canyon. The Trail of Two Forests was a quick little stroll that included educational information about how the lava from previous eruptions has molded the landscape surrounding the volcanic mountain. There are tubes under ground where tree roots used to be that the girls (and I!) were able able to crawl through. Lava is cool...not literally but....hehe pun. Then we went and walked through the Lower Ape Cave which was pitch black dark and was quite frigid! We walked as far as we could then at the end had to army crawl a bit to fully experience the lava tube we were walking through. There is an Upper Ape Cave as well (no idea why it is called Ape Caves because we saw no monkeys) which is more strenuous (and most likely more fun) to walk through but we opted out of hiking that and went to the Lava Canyon instead. The hike at Lava Canyon led us to a voracious waterfall and exciting suspension bridge; we were very pleased with our choice to include the Lava Canyon in our adventures! This finished out our day and once back at the campground we enjoyed a yummy dinner and early bedtime to rest for the next full day out.

Trail of Two Forests

Ape Caves

Waterfall at Lava Canyon with Bubbles

Suspension bridge at Lava Canyon

Lava Canyon-view while on the bridge

On the suspension bridge

We drove about 2 hours from our campsite to walk the Hummocks Trail and see Mt. Saint Helens from a well known view point. The Hummocks Trail continued to teach us how the landscape has undergone destruction and regrowth since the infamous 1980 eruption of the volcano and even the more recent eruptions in the early 2000's. The trail was in full bloom and I cannot pass up an opportunity to photograph flowers and nature so needless to say I was lagging behind in the group just clicking away. When we finished the trail we went to the view point just as the early afternoon clouds were beginning to break away from the summit and we were greeted with a majestic MOUNTAIN view! Full disclosure, I was screaming MOUNTAIN and pointing like a lunatic at Mt. Saint Helens because that is just not a site I will ever get used to. As I kept telling my girls, "There are no mountains in Ohio....LOOK AT THAT MOUNTAIN, LOOK AT IT!!!!" After being convinced that we needed to leave the mountain view and return to camp I begrudgingly got back into the van and we resumed our drive home. All in all, the camping and caving and MOUNTAIN viewing trip was a great time had by everyone!