A little pre Salt Lake Hike

When my little brother was in town, we wanted to show him what an awesome place the Northwest is, so we made the drive up to Mt. St. Helens for a day of hiking. Our six mile jaunt turned into more of a ten mile haul, but we still loved it. The landscape was incredible, original, and lovely. It was so much fun having Danny with us, and I was impressed that he was able to keep up with us {okay, thats a lie. I was impressed that I could keep up with him!...sort of}. There were some rather precarious moments on this intensely steep hike. Crossing the suspension bridge, while very safe, was rather terrifying for me. Don't let my smile fool you. The hundreds of foot drop into the raging river below is not exactly my cup of tea. Me over water of any kind just doesn't really do it for me.

The entire hike was very steep, and falling would have been very bad. The way in was nice and easy and downhill. The way out was a little less enjoyable.

Handsome young man, no?

This bridge would qualify as one of the more precarious moments in the hike. This whole part when we walked down by the river was part of the 'missing our turn and forging our own path' section of the hike. A Tyler Scott special. Who needs trails anyways right?
After our awesome hike we drove over to Ape Cave, an old lava flow. We hiked the 1 1/2 miles through the pitch blackness. It was very cool and very cold.

We give St. Helens two thumbs way up. These were only two of the cool things we did that day. We just wish we could have had another day full of exploring. One more check off our Oregon to do list!