Volcanoes

Mount Saint Helens
The Cascade mountain range, as some of you may know (we didn't), is made up of a bunch of volcanoes - some extinct, some just dormant. It turns out that Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood are just dormant, just like Mount St. Helen's was for some 123 years prior to May 18, 1980 (see http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/). We got our first glimpse of M.S.H. while still in Portland, Oregon this morning. We decided to take the northern route to the mountain from Route 12 in Washington and drove 15 miles along a circuitous mountain road before we saw the "Road Closed" sign.

We were able to find a scenic overlook of the mountain after we drove back down; unfortunately, the cloudy skies seem to make the mountain blend into the clouds.

This picture of M.S.H. was taken from the ladder on the back of the RV.

P.S. Some Connecticut related M.S.H. trivia: M.S.H. is part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Gifford Pinchot was the founder of f the U.S. Forest Service in 1905. He was born in Simsbury, Connecticut on August 11, 1865 and graduated from Yale University and also served two terms as governor of Pennsylvania. His autobiography is titled Breaking New Ground.












Mount Rainier
We continued on to Mount Rainier National Park; although also enshrouded in clouds, the views were impressive.