Year Three - Day Ninety-Four

Sams View

Today we went to lava canyon! it is a 3.6 mile hike over waterfalls, across gorges, and even on the side of cliffs sort of. It was amazing :).


Summer's View

Our hike today was one I found online and it was originally paired with the Ape Canyon hike as one day - glad we split it up! Whew!  We drove out to Lava Canyon, which is down the road from Ape Canyon and on the back side of Mount St. Helen's.  It was 3.6 miles roundtrip, with the first half being downhill, and second half being uphill.  Oh boy!

About half-a-mile in, we came to the suspension bridge, which was built for workers originally, and is an actual swinging bridge with wooden planks on cables strung across the gorge.  Way cool!!

After that, we continued along the stream, and the path became quite narrow, following along the side of the mountain with a sheer cliff drop-off!  Sam was a little nervous, but it was a sight!  Close to the bottom and the turnaround point was an 80 foot metal ladder to descend, which was another nervous but fun point for Sam!  :)

We had lunch streamside after "plummeting" down a loose rocky hillside to get there...lol.  Then, it was time for trek back.  The whole way was uphill, and although my muscles were tired, it was a combination of heat exhaustion and altitude that made me take quite a few "rests" along the way.  :)  I finally made it out, though, and it was definitely an awesome hike!!

 

 

 

Jim's View

 

Yep, we went to Lava Canyon, which is located on the south side of Mt St Helen. South side being the opposite of her northern side where she blew her top. The canyon was one of the few times Mt St Helen actually dribbled out some lava. A great hike. A  lot of the trail was goat narrow with a sheer cliff to the river below. They had signs warning of fatalities. My phrase of the day was "stay focused". We made it to the river, and took a little lunch break and soaked our feet in the nice cold water. I even showed Summer and Sam how to properly descent and loose gravel embankment... :) . The hike back up was a lot harder, gravity or something. We all made it and treated ourselves to an ice cream later for a hike well done.