Yesterday we went on another hike on Mount Saint Helens. Last fall when we were here it was a rainy day and we only caught a few glimpses of the top. Today was gloriously clear and sunny!
Our destination today was to hike in Lava Canyon. In ancient times, a forest covered a deep valley here. Then, 3,500 years ago, Mount Saint Helens erupted, sending a massive mudflow down through the canyon, filling it with volcanic rock. Over the years, the river carved a path through the rock, forming a canyon with waterfalls, deep cuts and towers of harder rock - Lava Canyon. Later mudflows covered all of that, and eventually forest grew back over the whole thing. Then on May 18th, 1980, Mount Saint Helens erupted again, melting 70% of its glaciers in an instant and sending millions of cubic feet of mud and rock blasting down the side of the mountain at about 45 miles an hour. George compared it to a giant power washer! That eruption cleaned out the forest and rock, exposing Lava Canyon for the first time in thousands of years. 
The hike had a really fun suspension bridge. I loved all the different styles of crossing the bridge I observed....from the crouched and 'holding on for dear life' approach to the 'lets see how much I can actually get it to swing' people. It was interesting when hikers from these two very different groups were on the bridge at the same time!
I'll never tell which members of our family fell into each group! This is the view over the side of the bridge.
Here's a great view of the canyon with the suspension bridge at the top.
There was also a 40 foot ladder to take you down to the canyon floor. Once you were down there it was like a different world! Reminded me of Hawaii!
It was a wonderful day and another memorable hike!
I won't spoil the fun by telling which group I was in, but I will admit that I didn't spend any extra time on the bridge.
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