Mt. St. Helens and the Ape Caves.

On June 23rd Jesse and I drove up to Mt. St. Helen's and went to the Ape Caves.  The drive was really beautiful.

Jesse is also a bridge fanatic.  This bridge was built in 1932, it is a single lane suspension bridge and it was a huge advance in technology for it's time.  

The Lewis River Bridge at Yale Lake. 

The Ape caves are lava flow tubes that were formed when the Mt. erupted.  They are really awesome inside and I would recommend that anyone go see it.  There are also some structures inside that formed during the process.  

Now dat's a meataballa.   

Exiting the cave. 

Then we drove around to the other side and were able to see the Mt. as a whole and we also saw some lahars.  It's amazing to see new growth in some spots and then to see these big gouges and valleys were the lava did so much damage that nothing has started growing there.  You can literally see the layers in the sides of these lahars where there is old dirt way on the bottom and then this huge thick layer of lava and then a new smaller layer of dirt and new growth.  

A closer view of the layers.

Mt. St. Helen's and the lahar.