On the Pacific coast, but only got a glimpse

We had a nice time in Silver Lake, WA, it turned out our change of plan gave us a nice stop and campground although the weather was a little murky.  It's about 40 miles west of the Mt St Helen's observatory, and although we had been there once before we made the trek keeping our fingers crossed that the low overcast would allow us to see the mountain.  No such luck.  If you ever get a chance to go there, do it, and watch the presentation movie at the observatory, it is well done, explains the absolutely unbelievable forces unleashed when the mountain blew, and at the very end of the movie with the view of the mountain as it is today, the screen splits and you see the very same view but of the real mountain.  It is fantastic!

When it blew in 1980, it was the 5th highest mountain in OR.  It lost 1280' of elevation and left a crater 1-2 miles across and 2100' deep.  It was the largest landslide ever recorded.  It killed 57 people, and 200 houses, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railway, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed.  The blast covered an area of approximately 19 by 23 miles, and obliterated everything in its path with pyroclastic flow of gases, pumice, debris moving initially at 220 mph increasing to 670 mph!  If you are interested read the link on the eruption, the power of mother nature is extraordinary!

Since we were unable to see the mountain this trip,
this is a picture we took in 2005 when we there

This was taken when we were there this time,
you can see how the streams have cut into the ash deposited by the blast
Those cuts average 210' deep to put it in perspective

This area is a huge lumbering area, both OR and WA, but this sight along the highway that Weyerhaeuser manages caught our eye.  We both thought for a moment that our eyes were giving out:)  This photo is in focus, there is something about these trees that were planted, Noble Firs, that make it look blurred, kind of cool.

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We then made our move down to Newport, OR on the coast.  We had to cross the Columbia River to get over to the coastal highway.  We went over the Lewis and Clark Bridge, in Longview, WA, that when it was built in 1930 had the longest cantilever span in the US.

Lewis and Clark Bridge

This is just one of the many, many logging operations that we saw

Loading logs onto a ship

We cut over to Astoria and then ran down the coast, unfortunately it was a rainy, foggy day, but still amazing.

Incredible view, and no there is nothing to the right!

Pretty, even in the rain and fog

We got to our expensive, splurgy site advertised to be right on the coast, and found out that even if we could see past the pines in the way, all we could see was fog, fog, fog.  But that's okay sometimes it just happens.

We had a good time nonetheless, we met friends from our campground in Florida, Dan and Carolyn, and their daughter, Sunny for a nice lunch and visit.  Did our best to sightsee amidst the fog, which by the way abated at our site for about 5 hours total in the 3 days we were there:(

The pretty bridge in Newport

San Fran has nothing on Newport with its sea lions

The fog moved out enough to get in a couple mile walk on pristine Agate Beach

We are moving over to the big city today, Portland for a while, plan to do some sightseeing and we have a bunch of errands to accomplish including getting those previously mentioned tires before our upcoming off-road adventures in Colorado.  So we are done with the coast for a good long while.  A few parting shots when the fog lifted enough to get a glimpse of the ocean.

Right from our campsite

Looking north up the coast

Right from a path in our campground

And right out our window