Ape Canyon hike

Adrienne, Anne, and I escaped our jobs and children for the day and went for an 11-mile hike up Mount St. Helens, on the Ape Canyon trail. We left Portland at 6 and were back by 4 - it was so fun to be out on a long hike together. The first part of the hike was in a gorgeous old-growth forest - huge firs and cedars and vine maples, and wildflowers.

a froggy friend!

two huge mushrooms

Our first glimps of Mount St. Helens, through the trees, looking up through the blast zone.

Mt. Adams (I think)

We came out onto a plateau, from which we could see Rainier, Adams, and Mt. Hood at various points, with St. Helens towering above us. There were lava rocks and huge boulders, and very little vegetation growing.

In this photo, you can see the trail winding its away along the side of the mountain ahead of us.

purple lupines, one of my favorites

It's hard to see, but Mt. Hood is behind Anne, to the left. This was a seismic monitoring station.

Our lunch spot.

This v-shaped canyon surprised us - we'd been standing on top of it as we came around the bend, not realizing that the ground dropped so abruptly away from us until we kept going and looked back.

More flowers - Indian paintbrush and then a field of something purple I didn't recognize.

 

The mountain looks like it's floating out there.

We had a scare on this part of the trail. Just as we had walked past and under that huge rock, we heard rumblings and some smaller rocks started to tumble down the hillside towards us. We hustled a few more steps ahead and watched a cascade of rocks hit the trail where we had just been. Eep! Good timing!!

Adrienne in mid-air! Always the best.

In every season but summer, there would be a cascading waterfall gushing over this cliff - we saw the merest trickle of a stream now.