Day 102 - Mount St Helens, Centralia and Olympic National Park, WA

Today we were visiting Mount St Helens who some people (not me as I'm too young) will remember it erupting in the 80s. The smoke was still impacting our views but the drive to Mt St Helens was incredibly pretty and we learnt so much about the volcano and the impact it had on the area, it basically completely reshaped the whole landscape. You'll notice from the video that part of the impact area is green and full of trees. This is an area that has been cleared and replanted by the Forest Service and lumber companies. The inner circle of the impact area is still very bare of trees and you can see the trees lying on the ground. This is the National Park area where they have chosen to let nature repair itself to see what happens.

We entered the park at Castle Rock and drove along the 504 to the Johnson Ridge Observatory and then turned around and came back again. You can enter the park at Woodlands and drive along the 503 to Randle and then pick up the 12 but I had heard that the drive wasn't as pretty and the views not as good.

We spent a lot longer than we planned in Mt St Helens but we were having too much fun. We knew we were not going to make it to our campsite in time to cook so we decided to stop off en route to grab some food. We drove past a town called Centralia where we found a bar called O'Blarneys to grab some chicken wings for Lee and a sandwich for me.

Centralia was a cool town. The bar was very local, everyone knew everyone else but they were all friendly. Lee was even told he looked like Kiefer Sutherland, the best compliment he has had for the entire trip! Or maybe his life?!

The town was pretty too, there were lots of murals and flowers on display, a group of Amish women and children selling art work and crafts and a railway line which kept Lee happy. The town seemed to attract a lot of bikers who were passing through on their on travels and the odd Hot Rod that rolled down the high street. Even the homeless in this town seemed to be happy, the one man shouting to another that he was so happy today as he wasn't dead.

After dinner, we then hit the road to our campsite. It was located in the Olympic National Park right next to the sea in a campsite called Kalaloch. We would have to explore the area more tomorrow as it was 8:30pm when we arrived, the sun had gone down but there was just enough light to pitch the tent, take a quick look at the sea and then start a small fire to keep the bugs away.