June 2nd, Mt St Helen and Poulsbo, WA

June 2nd, Mt St Helen and Poulsbo, WA
We camped at Seacrest State Park. Very nice site. Flat and quiet.  Turns out that the park is on the road to Mt St Helen which I did not realize when I picked it.  So the next morning visiting the Mt St Helen Volcanic Monument was on the agenda. We then drove north towards Olympic National Park and Poulsbo, WA.

 Our campsite at Seacrest State Park.

 The first good view point driving up to Mount St Helen.

 Some awesome valleys which we saw along the way uop to the mountain.

 At the Mt St Helen's visitor center they had a nice 20 minute movie describing the eruption and the events leading up to it and the effects afterwards. At the end of the movie, (spoiler alert) they raise the screen and you see the mountain.

 The force of the eruption was so great it ripped trees from their stumps.

 View of the mountain and the valley below.

 Closer view of the mountain and more detail of the valley.

Farther from the mountain the valleys are gorgeous and lush with growth.

 We headed for Poulsbo WA and camped there for the next two nights.  We had dinner with Elaine's cousin John Portanova and his wife Barbara, their daughter Katie, their daughter-in-law Val, and son John. Had a nice time catching up after not seeing John since approx 1999 and finally getting to meet his lovely family..

Val and John