Cay-no Park

As part of our recent trip to Oregon (more posts are forthcoming!), we headed up to Mount Saint Helens. Whenever I've gone to the mountain, I've always done things are the south side (ape cave, hiking to the summit, etc). I'm not sure I had ever been to the visitor's centers on the northern side. It was awesome!

We started out going to the Visitor's Center, which was a great overview. We watched their movie and learned a lot of what happened prior to and during the eruption.

The kiddos were absolutely insane after being in the car, so we took advantage of a wetlands hike to let them run their energy out.

In retrospect, we should have done the hike and then went to the visitor's center. Maybe Kyler and I would've been able to look at the exhibits more if we had done so, rather than chase crazy kids around. Oh well. Live and learn.

Next, we drove closer to the mountain and to just inside the blast zone, where we hit up the Forest Learning Center. I would say this place is a must-visit, especially if you have kids, but even if you don't. After all, it's free admission!
We started out eating lunch and playing at the playground outside, complete with volcano slide.

It was a big hit with the kiddos.
Then we headed inside. We watched their eruption video and then wandered around looking at their exhibits.

We spent a little bit of time checking out the helicopter,

But most of our time was spent in their discovery room.

In that room, everything was touchable. We floated pumice in water, picked up different kinds of pine cones, colored pictures, did puzzles... all sorts of things.

Calista very carefully took each of the puzzle pieces out and laid them on the table, with the right spatial orientation to each other. When she was finished, she put them all back in the puzzle, "so someone else can play with them later," she said.

Finally, we headed up to Johnston Ridge Observatory.

Man, oh man, is that view worth the drive.

Plus we got to listen to a ranger talk about the more recent (2004 ish) activity on the mountain, and it was really interesting. Calista also enjoyed the seismograph they had where you could make an "earthquake" by jumping on the sensor.

And Craig slept through part of it, but what he was awake for he loved.

Especially the "cay-no." Seriously, the boy was obsessed with talking about volcanoes the rest of our Oregon trip. He kept wanting to go to a "cay-no park," and seeing volcanoes outside his window in the car. Silly man.
It was a fantastic, and exhausting trip.

Calista fell asleep on the way home. Craig did not, but did enjoy the cookie.

Definitely worth the time and bit of money we spent! Maybe next time we'll do it again, or do the lava tubes further south, or do a different volcano entirely: Crater Lake, or...