Day 24 - Off to the mountain again!

We decided to try the route to the mountain that would take us close to Spirit Lake. So we headed out after breakfast. This route is longer than the previous day's route.

We drove and drove and drove. We saw log trucks everywhere. If you've ever seen Ax Men on A & E, you'll understand the trucks. They're huge and the logs are bigger! The road is winding and all of a sudden you meet a logging truck.

We didn't see as much damage the the landscape on this side of the mountain. There aren't as many pullovers so there's not much to see. We keep noticing that some of the side trips we want to take are marked closed - Ape Caves (Lava tubes you can walk through) and Lava Field. We get to the last town before reaching the road to the Observation Area and the sign says the road is closed due to snow! We wonder if we can still see anything so we go ahead as they road isn't closed yet.

We keep going up the road and we notice trees that have been cut and cleared only to allow vehicles through. As you can see from the picture, it really got to the point where it wasn't safe to go on. We later learned from a local lady that the road is usually open by June at the latest, but because of so much snow, it probably won't open until July! Needless to say, we didn't see Spirit Lake or Mt. St. Helens from here.

Back to the campground and feeding the ducks. Note: I actually had on rubber ducky socks! I tried so hard to get them to eat of my hand, but Mama Duck wanted no part of it. She had 8 babies and kept tabs on them all. She'd run mallards off and other females who got too close. All of a sudden I heard a horrible squeal and she was dragging one of the babies around and around and it was squealing like crazy. I couldn't figure out why she'd do that to one of her babies! After a quick headcount, I realized it wasn't one of hers. When it finally got loose, the baby swam back to her family!

Raining again so we're back to the RV. Off to Oregon tomorrow without seeing the mountain except from a distance in Portland!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)