Day 44, August 24...Kelso, WA to Bend, OR

I left Kelso this morning and headed back north on I-5 to Castle Rock, where the road that leads to Mount St. Helens connects to the Interstate.  I had forgotten, but it's about 50 miles from that point to the Visitor Center near the volcano itself.  But, the ride up and back was nice with some interesting scenery.  The volcano exploded in May, 1980 and it's interesting to see how much some areas that were devastated then have recovered and how others have not.  

The Visitor Center at the entrance to the park is about 5 miles off the interstate and is very nice:

The road up to the top had some interesting viewpoints:

Incidentally, most of the green areas you see were destroyed as a result of the blast and have either been replanted or have grown back naturally.

At the top of a mountaintop about 5 miles from Mount St. Helens stands the Johnson Observatory, named for one of the scientists who was killed on the day of the eruption.  Here are a couple of pics of Mount St. Helens from the Observatory:

Since the 1980 eruption, there have been a number of subsequent eruptions which have created a "dome" in the center of the blast area that is about 1,000 feet high.  This poster at the Observatory does show the mountain just before and just after the eruption:

If you compare the bottom picture in the poster to the pictures of the current mountain, you can see where the dome has been built.  I thought this was interesting, too.  This area is just downstream from the blast, and you can see that it has not recovered much at all:

This was interesting, too.  This Spruce tree had survived a blast in 1479 that was twice as big as the 1980 blast, but got destroyed by the latter eruption.  Notice, too, the top of the tree stump:

You can see which way the wind was blowing.

After taking in all of Mount St. Helen's that I could, I headed south on I-5 through Portland and then east on I-84, which runs parallel with the south bank of the Columbia River.  Parts of the old US 30 (Lincoln Highway) remain alongside the interstate, but many parts of the old scenic highway have been turned into interstate.  Here are a couple pics I took along the river:

While along the Columbia River, I stopped at the Bonneville Dam.  Pat and I had stopped here in 1978 when we took our first big vacation out west, and, from what I can remember, not much has changed.  Here's the dam:

And here are the fish ladders that allow fish (I think salmon) to swim upriver to spawn:

Inside the Visitor Center, they have windows that allow you to see the fish swimming upstream.  Here is my new best friend, Fred the Fish:

He seemed to be very intent on getting upstream and finding a girl friend.

From Bonneville, I continued east to The Dalles, then south on US 197 and US 97 to Bend, Oregon for the night.  Tomorrow, it's further south to one of the most beautiful sights you'll see out here, Crater Lake, and then on toward northern California.

Miles today:  379
To Date:  10,866