Mt. St. Helens south side Sunday

Yesterday could really not have gone much better.  I'd never been to Trail of Two Forests and Ape Cave before but that did not stop me from leading a group there.  Live on the edge, that's how I roll.

So does my daughter:

It's hard to tell from this photo, but she's looking down into an empty hole about 8 feet deep--the cast of the trunk of a big ol' tree that was standing in the forest, minding its own business, until a lava flow came down the mountain about 2,000 years ago.  Homeschool Distractions was also along and posted a great photo diary of the field trip that I don't need to recreate here. 

After the group split up at the end of the day--as usual, we lasted longer than the rest, we kept going a little way up the newly snowy road from Lahar Viewpoint to Stratigraphy Viewpoint to see the lahar and pyroclastic deposits.  It was near sunset by then, super gorgeous.

This is looking up Pine Creek toward Mt. St. Helens. There is a tree stump sticking out of the bluff at the right side of the photo, see it?  That's a fallen tree carried down with the 1980 lahar flow.  This would not have been a good place to stand 31 years ago.  

 L saw it. There she is, living on the edge again.  The kids have already asked to go back again.  I'm sure we will.  But on the way back we got to talking about the other volcano and cave sites we need to visit.  This world is so big and there is so much to see!  It is so hard to pick where to go next.  Luckily, thinking about it is one of my favorite things.  The ocean during a winter storm is awfully exciting...