Who Let the Horns Out?
Who Let the Horns Out?
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Mount St. Helens and the Unbelievable Forces of Nature

Imechapishwa: 03.10.2022

We spent the first night “boondocking”, which is free, self-sufficient camping legal in the US (not everywhere, though) and it worked perfectly well. After having breakfast at a lake, we spent the day at Mount St Helens. It is hard to put in words and in the first place, hard to comprehend the power set free with the catastrophic eruption in 1980. In just hours, the collapse of the mountain top transformed the densely forested area into the desert-like landscape it is nowadays. A lateral blast literally ripped trees out of the earth. The remaining stumps as well as the toppled trees, scattered in one direction, looking like toothpicks laying around or swimming in Spirit and St. Helens Lake, are still clearly visible. The material from the mountain top went down as a huge landslide. On our way to Coldwater Peak, we were walking on the landslide material and almost couldn't believe how it got there, as Mt St Helens looked far away, and a deep valley was between us and the mountain… We also admired the smooth area around Mt St Helens, caused by hot pyroclastic flows. While hiking, our shoes got white from the ash we were walking on. It was an experience itself to step on it because it feels so soft. From the top of Coldwater Peak, we had a great view of the whole scenery. Taking in the other 3 giant volcanoes Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt Hood while looking at the large crater of Mt St Helens, you feel a bit intimidated…

Click to watch walking on the ashes

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<p>The drive from Seattle to <i>Mount Rainier</i> took longer than we thought. We were happy to still snatch a campsite, so we could take our time for the <i>Burrough Mountain</i> trail. It’s a beautiful hike, going through alpine meadows first. Then, the vegetation recedes and you’re in a barren volcanic landscape, walking over basalt, ashes and pumice from former eruptions. Plus, there’s always the intimidating, huge Mt Rainier volcano in front of you. The summit was carefully hidden by clouds almost the whole time. That made it even more intimidating and mysterious because we could only imagine how high it really is. While hiking to the third peak of Burrough Mountain, we got closer and closer to Mt Rainier, until we could see the deep, gaping crevasses of the <i>Winthrop Glacier</i>. Then, we got lucky and the sky cleared up, finally revealing the enormous, pyramid-shaped Mt Rainier, covered in ice and snow from the glaciers.</p><p>On our way back, we encountered some fearless golden-mantled ground squirrels. They already stole a bag of peanuts from a woman picnicking. As I held out my bare hand, they even started nibbling my fingers until they realized it’s nothing edible. As another man unpacked his snacks, they scrambled upon him and tried to get into the bag. But still, they were so cute! As the dusk set in and only a few tourists were still on the trail, we could even see some marmots. I got very close (ca. 1,5 m) to a big one calmly chowing some plants.</p><p>On the second day in Mt Rainier National Park, we hiked the <i>Skyline Trail Loop</i>. It starts in <i>Paradise</i>, which lives up to its name with beautiful alpine meadows, flowers blossoming in a variety of colours and small creeks coming from the glacier. When we got higher, we found ourselves walking on volcanic rock like basalt again. From <i>Panorama Point</i>, we could not only admire Mt Rainier but also the other impressive volcanoes nearby: <i>Mount Adams</i> and <i>Mount St. Helens</i>, our next stop.</p><p><a href='https://drive.google.com/file/d/12gX-gcSAGGOQxF70YsiECPJGHsVDso-8/view?usp=drivesdk'>Click to watch marmot video</a></p>

Horn in the USA!

First Rock Climbing Experiences at Smith Rock State Park

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