The Schlicht Family: Vacation 2009-Day 1 and 2

This past August, Mike and I went on our first vacation in five years without any kids. It was fun and we were able to do other types of sightseeing, hiking and "learning experiences". We left Saturday morning, August 15. When we woke up Saturday morning, glanced out the window and all we saw was fog. What in the heck? We could not even see across the street! AAGH!! Is this the way we start our vacation? We packed up the Jeep and decided to start down the road and try our luck, hope the fog clears for clear sailing--or driving as it would be! The fog lifted by the time we left Spokane city limits and lo and behold, but what do we see?? CLEAR BLUE SKY with the sun smiling at us!

We decided to take our trip along the Columbia River Gorge, the Washington and Oregon coast. Our first place that we came to, brings such a vivid memory of the Cable Bridge over the Columbia River at The Tri-Cities (Pasco, Kenniwick and Richland). It was built in 1978 and is one of seven major bridges over the Columbia at the Tri-Cities area.

There were many wind turbines along the Columbia River. They covered the hills along the river. It is very windy in this area!

The creator of the Stonehenge Memorial thought that the original Stonehenge was a sacrificial site and built this as a memorial to World War 1, 2 and Korean War soldiers who died during the wars. It is located south of Goldendale, WA along the Columbia River.

The next two pictures were taken at exactly 1200 on Saturday.

Looking down the hill from Stonehenge into Maryhill, the Columbia River in the background and the state of Oregon across the river.

I love this train bridge. If you look closely, you can see that it is also a draw bridge.

Here's the train!

The Dalles, Oregon (Pronounced daelz), which is french for flagstone-referring to the columnar basalt rocks on the Columbia River. There is a hydroelectric dam, I am used to seeing the earth filled hydroelectric dam (Fort Peck). The Army Corp of Engineer started work on the dam in 1952 and took 5 years to complete.

The Bridge of the Gods. Is a toll bridge between Oregon and Washington. It is named after a famous geologic event that occurred in the 18th Century by the Bonneville Landslide that dammed the Columbia River.

Mt. Hood is the tallest mountain in the state of Oregon at 11, 249 ft. It is a stratovolcano, part of the Cascade Volcano Arc. I wish the picture was clearer, but it was so hazy!

Along the Historic Columbia River Highway are some gorgeous waterfalls. This is Horsetail Falls

Oneada Gorge

Multnomah Falls is 620 feet long, it is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon. It is absolutely beautiful and pictures cannot display such beauty!

Absolutely Gorgeous!

DAY 2-we went up to Mt. St. Helen's. When we were here last year, the kids did not want to drive up the mountain very far, they were afraid that it would explode. On the way up Johnson Ridge Observatory we saw Big Foot and he posed for this picture!

Look, Ma! Oreo Cows!

Along the way, we took a hike up to a sediment dam. It was absolute breathtaking. Mike wanted to take a picture of the mossy trees.

A major problem to people living downstream of Mount St. Helen's was the high sedimentation rates resulting from stream erosion of the volcanic deposits. Streams were continuously down cutting channels, eroding their banks, and eating away at the avalanche and lahar deposits. This material was eventually transported downstream and deposited on the stream beds, decreasing the carrying capacity of the channels and increasing the chances of floods.

October, 1980 the Army Corp of Engineer built a sediment dam to keep sediment from going down stream and to prevent destruction to homes and land downstream if Mt. St. Helen's were to erupt again.

You can look closely at this picture and see pipes on the side of the dam. This is about 75 feet deep.

Hoffstradt Creek Bridge. It is the longest of 14 bridges along Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. It is 600 feet long and 370 feet about the stream bed.

The valley below Mt. St. Helen's

There she is, peaking through the clouds.

This is a close up of the new lava dome in the middle of the crater. We are approximately 5 miles across the valley from the crater at Johnson Ridge Observatory.

Beautiful wildflowers along the ridge.

Indian Paintbrush

This is all natural growth on the ridge, valley of Mt. St. Helen's.

Crater of Mt. St. Helen's

Mike likes this picture that he took out the front window the Jeep. It is amazing how clear it looks, considering there were bugs on the window!

Mike left me alone, locked up in the Jeep to take a power nap. He took a picture of the Jeep because it was "wimpering" to go down the trail with him. Mike says, it keep say..."take me with you, take me with you!"

I love these flowers.
I think they look like they are breathing when you look closely at them!

We drove to the south side of Mt. St. Helens. There was Ape Cave. It was formed about 1900 years ago but was not discovered until 1947 by a logger. It is an unusual part of Mt. St. Helens eruption history. It was the only time in its 40,000 year existance that the volcano erupted red, hot flowing lava. As the lava flowed, its surface cooled, creating a hardened crust. This crust insulated the molten lava beneath, alowing it to travel a great distance. When the flows stablized, lava bulit up on the walls, making ledges that reveal the depth of the flow. This tube is 13,042 feet long, the third longest in the US and was created as a result of a rare eruption.

This is the opening of the cave.

This is called "meatball", a round ball of lava that is actually a piece of breakdwon that fell from the ceiling while lava was still flowing through the cave. It is wedged 12 feet above the cave floor.