5/14/05 to 5/18/05
We made our way to Vancouver, Washington staying at the Big Fur Campground. It was very heavily wooded as the name suggests. The Columbia River Gorge is the dividing line between Oregon and Washington. There is a scenic highway along each side of the river, one is Oregon and one is Washington. This was a beautiful drive, especially on the Oregon side. There are several beautiful water falls in the area, actually 77 water falls. The most spectacular is The Multnomah Falls. It is 200 feet high divided into 2 separate waterfalls. It is a spectacular sight. We had a great time seeing the beautiful mountains, canyons and the waterfalls. On Wednesday we took the highway to the south side of Mt. Saint Helens. This day was the 25th anniversary of the volcano eruption. We were able to walk a trail to a canyon that was created during the volcanic eruption. Geologists have determined that the canyon was actually formed thousands of years ago from another volcano and had over the centuries filled in and was covered with vegetation. The strong force of the eruption in 1980 formed the canyon again. We saw other results of the volcano and picked up some pieces of volcanic rock. Most of the damage and sights are around on the north side of the mountain which we hope to see on Thursday. The weather while we were in the area was very cloudy with spotty rain. However it turned out that every time we wanted to get out of the truck the rain let up.