Portland, OR

Our site at Ainsworth SP.

Based on the information in the visitor center, the eruption of Mount Saint Helens (or Mt. Saint Helens or Mount St. Helens or Mt. St. Hlns.) was a cataclysmic event for Washington and Oregon. Based on the view from the visitor center — the one run by Washington state parks and only five miles from I-5 — Mount Saint Helens doesn’t exist. We never saw it. Just clouds. Still, I’m pretty sure it was an actual event.

The visitor center presents an elaborate timeline leading up to the eruption on May 18, 1980, and its aftermath. The magnitude of the eruption was hard to fathom. Seeing photos and video of the entire side of a 9,000 ft mountain slide like a collapsing sand castle, was hard to believe — even staring at it over and over. It was a tragedy and a trauma for many people. How could such a massive disaster be otherwise? But the emergency response and efforts at rescue and rebuilding were also impressive.

After walking through the timeline I came upon a shocking little display. It had little volcanoes mounted on a platform. Each had a famous name and year of eruption printed in front of it: Mt. Saint Helens, Krakatoa, Mazama and others. Above each little volcano was a gray plexi-glass cloud. The size of the cloud corresponded to the volume of ash and pumice produced by that volcano. The 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens was, by far, the smallest. All of the others mentioned were far larger, and the eruption of Mount Mazama in about 5700 BC, which created Crater Lake, was at least ten times larger. This would have been, to use the geo-scientific terminology for such an event, no picnic.

Our next goal for the day was a-washin’ for the rig. Long have we wanted to take the trailer to a Blue Beacon truck wash. The last time was way back in San Antonio. They are, naturally, placed by interstates. We haven’t been by the interstate for a long time (gloriously). The rain of the northwest has done a good job cleaning off the grime on the top of truck and trailer, but not the sides and not the nooks and crannies. Now the nooks and crannies are clean too. Of course, it rained on the drive to the campground — but the Airstream is still clean!


A walk through the woods at Ainsworth.

We are parked in the Columbia River gorge at Ainsworth SP. It is woodsy, wet and quiet. We like it quite a lot. The drive along I-84 was distracting because of the series of waterfalls pouring off the cliffs. From the campground it is a short drive to the impressive Multnomah Falls and about a dozen others. We’ll do a tour of them at some point this week.



We drove into the city to have dinner with my brother Ed, his wife Cibyl, and their kids, Emma (15), Jeremy (12), and William (age unknown). We had tostadas! De-lish. Emma pulled out her American Girl dolls and toy horses for Elise and the rest of us chatted and caught up. It is always good to see family!