Scenery and Volcanoes in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California

The Pacific Northwest is truly a breathtaking place, not to mention the fact that the temperature is pretty awesome.

Washington

Our plan was to see Mt. St. Helens in Washington. We ended up arriving a little later than we expected, so we decided to postpone that until the next day. In the mean time, we drove around and admired what was around us.

It was getting dark soon after we got into Washington, so we got some nice sunset views.

 

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The next morning we set out to see Mount St. Helens. Our GPS took us to a trailhead where we could actually hike to the volcano. Unfortunately, you had to have a permit to do the hike. It would also have taken quite some time to hike there, and we didn’t really have the extra days worth of time to do so.

The road that led us there was unpaved and was quite rough. If you ever go, it might not be a bad idea to have an SUV, although that definitely didn’t stop people (including us).

We saw the thermostat drop rather quickly in our car as we ascended up the mountain.

When we finally got to the parking area, the first thing we noticed was the snow on the ground. This was pretty unusual for us, as I have never seen snow up close in the middle of July before.

The only real negative thing about the way that our GPS took us was the fact that we didn’t ever have a really good and clear view of the volcano. It was definitely still a fun experience though.

Oregon

After spending a little time wandering around, we decided to head to Portland.

 

Eating at a food truck in Portland seemed like the right idea. I have never seen such a large food truck gathering before! The options were pretty vast. “The Grilled Cheese Grill” had the longest line, so we took that as a good sign. The wait was about 20 minutes, which was expected given the length of the line. I would like to say that the wait was worth it.

We then went for dessert.

 

We went to “Petunia’s Pies & Pastries” after lunch due to its high reviews. I got vegan chocolate ice cream and I was not disappointed. They had a large selection and everything pretty much looked delicious.

After leaving Portland we started making our way to San Rafael, California where we had camping reservations for the next day. We decided just to drive as far as we felt like that day and see where we ended up.

We saw a sign for something called Silver Falls and thought that we should check it out.

It was a nice place to stop and relax for a few minutes.

Northern California

After driving for a bit into California, we saw yet another volcano. This time we had a much better view.

We just kept getting closer and closer to it, which was awesome. Our views just kept getting better.

 

Our hotel that night looked like something out of an old horror movie, but I kind of liked it anyway.

-Haley