She thought this was the end of the walk. Not quite |
This afternoon I tried to go to Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. That was a complete fail. My phone gps to me to a random back road that ended next to a barb wire fence with the Nisqually NWR sign. Great. To make matters better I then saw that it was actually closed on Mondays. I was determined not to let the day go to waste. Plan B was Gifford Pinchot National Forest. That didn't happen either. Plan C did work - Mt Saint Helens. Though following the trend of the day that wasn't as easy as I first thought it would be. I got to the visitor center in just over an hour (making it a 2 hour trip so far) where I was told that the good hikes were a further 45 miles. Awesome. I decided the nearly hour long dry was still worth it considering I had gotten that far. I'm so glad I did. The views to the hike were beautiful - forest covered hills, eroded ridgelines, and of course Mt Saint Helens. There were clouds surrounding it on the drive in so I wasn't able to see much.
The hike I took was a loop trail that went through small stand of trees, around ponds, and near the Toutle River. I couldn't believe the views I got when I came up a hill. The whole landscape had been altered by volcanic eruptions, producing hummocks that were now largely covered by trees. The river caused the rest of the features - eroded banks and large cobbles on the floodplain. All of this was dominated by Mt Saint Helens. Thanks to my half hearted planning and determination to make something of the day I saw some of the most stunning views on my adventure so far.
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