Mt. St. Helens……Then on to Canada

June 8-9th- We decided to pass through Mt.St. Helens Volcanic National Monument on our way on up to Canada. We stayed in a campground just across from the visitor’s center at at the west side of the park. The weather was wet and sloppy when we left Cape Disappointment, and continued to rain on us all the way to Mt. St. Helens. Friday afternoon, we stopped in at the Visitors center to plan our visit to the National Monument for Saturday.

Mt. St. Helens had been a peaceful, picturesque mountain with a beautiful lake at its foot. Then, in May 1980, the face of the mountain blew open, as a devastating volcano erupted from the mountain.The visitors centers did a good job of presenting the path of destruction as well as the recovery of the area over the last 32 years.

We really enjoyed learning more about the Mt. St. Helens eruption, unfortunately, the Observatory where you could overlook the volcano was completely fogged in, so, we did not get to see much of the volcano, itself and did not take any pictures.

Sunday, June10th- We are off on the next part of our adventure……North through Washington and British Columbia, Canada to Alaska! We will drive to Prince Rupert, BC,  where we will catch the Alaskan Ferry through the Inside Passage, stopping for a couple of nights each at Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau, and Glacier Bay before ending up in Haines, AK.

We will have 9 days to sightsee a bit of British Columbia before we need to be in Prince Rupert. Today, we drove north through Seattle and across the Canadian border around Abbotsford. Crossing the border went easily enough. I was worried about the dog, and had all the appropriate shot records, etc. The border agent did not even ask about them! We declared our bear spray (just trying to be honest) and the agent didn’t even blink. Not an issue. But apples……..can’t take them across! Into the trash went 4 nice apples. Go figure……

We plan on being a bit more ‘out of touch’ for this part of the trip. No cell phone in Canada……not much in the way of service, and don’t like the roaming charges. Internet where we can find Wi-Fi. It will be a challenge to adjust to not having instant access……kind-of like the ‘olden days’.    ;- )