When I die I may not go to heaven cuz I don't know if they let cowboys in....

I woke up this morning to the aroma of bacon cooking on Salt's new Webber grill. Yesterday, we purchased these stupendous tomatoes at one of the fruit markets . Salt decided to gather all the ingredients for BLT's and make them up on the tailgate while we were up in the mountains.

We are loving all the picnics we have been having while we are traveling. Since we abhor fast foods and that is pretty much all that is available in these sightseeing areas we are packing lunches almost daily.

Yep....we weren't 2 miles down the road and up popped this Cowboy Coffee stand. I am going to have withdrawal when we leave the West...for sure!!

We started up through the Pischnot National Forest; green, green, green.


Except of course for all the magnificent colors that are becoming more and more prevalent.

We decided to do one side of the mountain pass today and do it thoroughly, stay over another day and do the other side and the visitor center (where they show the movies) tomorrow. There is just so much to see it is almost impossible to take it all in. Especially since we like to stop at all the lookouts and/ or historical markers to get the "whole story". The first lookout we stopped at was Bear Meadow. I took a picture of the info marker as I thought it was pretty amazing that someone actually got these pictures. These were taken by a couple of young kids just as the mountain erupted. After getting the 4Th picture they realized how close they were to disaster, so quickly started back down the mountain path. They had to literally grope their way down in the dark because of all the flying ash.

I don't know exactly what I expected to see when we reached the so called "devastation". I figured after 27 years there really wouldn't be that much to see.....WRONG! It was another one of those situations where unless you see it with your own eyes you cannot imagine the enormity of it. It just went on for miles.

If you enlarge this picture it is quite interesting!

Over 2 million seedlings have been planted (spread) and yet you can see how little growth has actually been restored.

As we ascended the mountain we came across this lake. It was called Spirit Lake and before the eruption was an upscale Resort and Children's Camp. It is hard to tell from the picture (this was as close as I could get). What appears to be ice jams is merely tons and tons of log jams from when the mountain erupted and blew the trees in the lake. Of course with all the ash and lava the lake is now nothing more than a memory.


We are really excited to finish the tour tomorrow. We have only just begun to actually learn about the volcanic activity. Tomorrow we will actually get to see movies and talk to people who can explain things more clearly. We did hear today that the mountain is steaming and bubbling again. Whatever that means. I know in 1980 it was set off by an earthquake....I have no idea what it means if it is steaming again???? Stay tuned!

I haven't checked this website out yet but it is a high definition web camera to give web visitors a more detailed view of the mountain, the crater and the growing domes. http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/


And......here she is!


Oh yes, on the way home Salt decided that if we took Route 25 which was CLOSED, we could save about 50 miles. Someone had taken a portion of the gate down and since we knew they were done working for the day we were tempted. We hemmed and hawed and then I said, "well we could do what my brother Joe does"....He always maintains it is better to apologize than ask questions....so off we went. Fortunately we did not run into anyone and when we went the 22 miles we managed to get around the other gate that was in fact CLOSED....thank God for 4 wheel drive! I think I do not make a good outlaw!


Betty and Mike.....if you are reading this we will call you as soon as we get in range of phone service again. If you need to get in touch with us... email or text message!