We haven’t done pure botany for a while, have we? We found some vibrant specimens of the plant world growing happily in the Muddy River Gorge when we were visiting the south side of Mount St. Helens. Lots of plants seem to be rather thrilled with the lahar that scraped all the old-growth stuff away, opening up lots of opportunity for fine young things.
Remember when we poked some gentle fun at Hollywood and ‘splained that most lava flows are so slow that you can outwalk them? I wish I’d known about this video back then, because it shows how even pahoehoe flows – you know, that thin, runny stuff – are often so ridiculously slow that an elderly sloth could escape their wrath. But it’s not like they’re not powerful! In this video, you’ll see how powerful lava is. I especially loved the tree roots asploding. Pay close attention to the chain link fence as it burns – this stuff is so hot it sets metal afire! Also parking lots, tires, and, buildings. And the lavafalls – spectacular!
It’s interesting watching folks save the power poles. We humans are pretty clever, figuring out how to live with erupting volcanoes and all.
I’m declaring this week Volcano Week at Rosetta Stones. B and I just got back from back-to-back trips to Mounts Baker and St. Helens, and we’ve got lots of pretty pictures for you! Check back often for all the new goodies. We’ve even got some home-grown pahoehoe! And you’ll see what that orchard may look like two thousand years after those poor engulfed trees have wasted away.
One thing reading Christianist textbooks does is teaches you to be cynical. No claim, no matter how innocuous, no matter how heart-warming, can be taken for granted. Observe:
Earth Science Fourth Edition’s chapter on groundwater begins with a charming little story about PlayPumps, which are merry-go-rounds attached to water pumps. It sounds like a difference-making idea: African village kids get some nice playtime, women don’t have to work so hard to get water, and advertisements on the water towers help pay for the pumps. It’s a great idea! Except, they don’t work too great. You need a good source of clean groundwater to begin with, kids would have to “play” three hours more per day than the standard 24 available, and the ads actually don’t make enough money to pay for the upkeep.
After the unremitting awful that was the last chapter, it’s nice to hit a light-ish one again. This is Escape, so there’s still plenty of bullshit that will make your teeth grind, but I’ve gotta admit, it’s kind of fun to get a taste of high school drama FLDS style
There’s a new high school in town, so those folks on the Prophet Uncle Roy side of the great religious divide can finally get an education.
The split in our community was now in it’s seventh year. One of the consequences was that many families pulled their children out of the private high school so they would not be contaminated by the children of the families on the other side of the divide who supported Uncle Roy. As a result, many boys wound up working on construction jobs instead of going to high school. The girls who were forbidden to go to the private high school were confined to their homes. Most of the girls who were kept out of school were disappointed because they had wanted an education and a diploma before they were assigned to a marriage. They knew that their futures were being shortchanged.
Yep. When you’ve got your eyes on eternal salvation, you don’t give a shit about your kids’ education. You don’t care if their ignorance cripples them here on Earth, condemning them to a lifetime of misery and poverty, just so long as their souls are saved. Besides, too much book-learnin’ could lead to H-E-double-hockey-sticks. Continue reading “Fundamentalist High School Drama – Escape Chapter 6: The Nusses”→
Yep, we’re having a Mystery Flora post on a Monday. Seattle suffered another heatwave over the weekend, my uterus is gleefully torturing me, and I’m very much looking forward to more unconsciousness. Therefore, we are doing something fun and easy that doesn’t require Dana to expend precious brain energy.
Hazards from volcanic eruptions continue long after the mountain stops exploding. Take Mount St. Helens: 35 years after her catastrophic morning, the landscape is still continuously affected. It’s not just that trees take a long time to grow up. It also takes a long time for all that loose debris to settle.
Our last day out was exhausting: we didn’t do much, but the traffic between Olympia and Seattle was an unending nightmare of congestion. But we did make it to the Toutle River after checking out of the hotel, so that was awesome! I brought you a UFD, which many of you will be able to identify in 2.2 seconds flat, but it’s still an awesome birdie.
We did it! We made it to the South Side! It’s tremendously awesome.
This is the first time I’ve been up Highway 503. It’s gorgeous, and I can definitely recommend it. The approach will give you some sense of what Mount St. Helens and its environs looked like before the May 18, 1980 eruption. It’s full of trees – so full that you don’t get to see much of the mountain for a long way. But if you stop by Yale Park and step out on the boat ramp on your way up the road, you’ll get a lovely little glimpse.
Mount St. Helens peeks above the ridges at Yale Lake.
We made it up to Ape Cave. We parked in the overflow parking and took the trail over, which leads past a streambed full of delightful pahoehoe lava. I haven’t seen pahoehoe in years! This made me squee a lot.
Pahoehoe lava near Ape Cave.
but although we followed the advice of the guide and brought three light sources, none of them were powerful enough to contend with the light-sucking power of the lava tube. It swallows flashlight beams whole. We decided that since we could barely see the ground we were walking over and couldn’t see features of the walls at all, we’d give it up at the entrance. We’ll return with brighter stuff. But we did get some lovely shots at the entrance.
The entrance of Ape Cave.
You won’t be disappointed that we didn’t do the cave just yet. You see, it gave us time to go up the volcano vista trail, which is a sorta-steep but easily doable one mile hike to a beautiful overlook of Mount St. Helens.
There’s our girl!
On the way down, we heard scrambles in the underbrush. It turned out to be an adorable woodland critter.
A totes adorbs chipmunk.
After Ape Cave and the super-awesome side trip, we headed to the Trail of Two Forests. Here, a forest was buried by the same flow that created Ape Cave. It’s full of tree casts, which are hollow tubes left behind after lava engulfs a forest. One of them is big enough to crawl through. I didn’t do the crawl, but I did get a bonza picture for you.
A huge tree cast!
There are places where you can see the impressions left by the bark. I took many photos and will treat you to a thorough walk-through some time. For now, please content yourselves with a photo of the lava casts and an adorable little pahoehoe lavafall.
Awww, a tiny lavafall!
Then we went up to Lava Canyon. To get there, you have to pass over large flats created by lahars from the May 1980 eruption. Here’s an image of Mount St. Helens from the lahar:
Mount St. Helens across a young lahar.
The lahars scoured the trees and some of the rock out of the Muddy River gorge, leaving behind the awesomesauce Lava Canyon. We did the loop trail, from which you get views like this:
The view from the suspension bridge.
I took this from the middle of the suspension bridge, which was a bit of a hair-raising experience. We took it slow and clung to things, and tried not to look down between the slats.
Further along the other end of the trail, there’s a lovely entabulature from an old lava flow.
Moi standing in front of the maclargehuge entabulature.
And shortly after, there’s a tamer bridge over the gorge, from which you can see gorgeous flowing water.
A mini-falls before the major falls.
We’ve got lots to explore when we come back next, but that was a thoroughly satisfying initial foray. Tomorrow will be rather tamer, as we’re just going to seek out the confluence of the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers, and then head for home. But I think you’ll agree, today makes the whole trip worth it!
B and I have arrived in Castle Rock! We’re taking the world’s laziest trip to Mount St. Helens, starting with a leisurely late departure from Seattle and an afternoon ambling round Castle Rock, WA: the Gateway to Mount St. Helens. See, last time we were down here, the volcano was socked in by clouds, and I realized that none of the guides really give you much to do when that happens. So I started nosing around looking for geological points of interest. Russell Evarts, the USGS geologist whose quad map documentation for the Silver Lake quadrangle reads like an epic adventure, pointed me toward the actual rock Castle Rock is named for.
“The Rock.” Castle Rock’s original castle rock!
So apparently, without all the trees, it looks more like a castle turret or something. It was pretty much barren when Eliza and William Huntington settled here, opened a post office, and established the town. It had been used as a landmark for Native Americans and traders at least since the early 1800s. Now it’s a 190-foot tall city park. Awesomesauce!
We’re taking advantage of a break in B’s schedule to sneak down to Mount St. Helens for a lazy few days. Okay, partially lazy – we’re going to do some geology stuff in Castle Rock for my upcoming guide, and finally-hopefully-if-fate-doesn’t-intervene do the southern approach where we get to see Ape Cave and such. I’ve even remembered the light sources this time! And there’ll be some lounging around at the hotel, since it’ll be our last chance to be alone together for a little while. I mean, we’ll be thoroughly testing the accommodations for guide book purposes.
So yes, for those of you who may have despaired that I’ve posted an excerpt from another Really Terrible Bible Stories book instead of the Mount St. Helens book: look, I’m working on both!
For serious, folks, I am.
We’ll have great photos for ye soon, even if Aunty Flow shows up early, as she is threatening to do. And if anyone needs a donor uterus, I’ve got a gently-used one they can have for free.
