Weekend at Mount St. Helens

While living in Oregon for the summer, I made the short trip up to Mount St. Helens for the 4th of July. Here is the photo story of that trip:

When I arrived at our camp site on the South side of Mount St. Helens it was already dark so my only view was of the fire and the boys I was camping with.

When I woke up, the sick view from my bed in my Jeep was fully worth it. Totally immersed in nature.

Morning nature tooth brushing because hygiene is important, even when you're off the grid.

Quick drive down the road to our first stop of the day: The Ape Caves

From the outside, the cave doesn't look like much....

But once inside, you realize the caves go deep underground and go on for miles. Some areas get so small you have to crawl.

We had to army crawl on our stomachs to get to this spot. Turns out this path dead ended in a little enclave no bigger than 3 feet tall and 6 feet wide.

After wandering for an hour or maybe 3 (it's easy to lose your sense of time and place when you're surrounded by endless darkness), we finally headed back up to the surface.

Over the river and through the woods, but we didn't end up at Grandma's house. Find the person in the first photo for scale!

The photo on the right was taken about a second after I almost slipped off the rock and fell down a 20 foot waterfall. That's my "Wow, ok, so glad I'm still alive" face.

Found this little guy hopping around the river. So cute and tiny.

On the way back to the camp site we stopped to check out the view of Mount St. Helen's

We did a quick change at the camp site, grabbed the drink of the summer (White Claw) and then stopped for a few more photos of the mountain.

We went to the town of Cougar for the 4th of July festivities. Locals lined the streets setting off their own stashes of fireworks all over the place.

There were fireworks going on literally every second. No joke, people rolled up with truck-beds full of boxes of fireworks.

Hands down, Cougar put on the rowdiest fireworks display I've ever seen. Constant explosions for over 3 hours.

The next morning I took it easy and slow with a little hammock chilling and book reading.

One last gorgeous view of Mount St. Helen's on the way out of town.

I saw a random lake through the trees while I was driving and decided to pull over and investigate.

A quick little climb around to end my trip before I jumped back in my car for Portland.