Morton, Wash. to Mount St. Helens to PDX to Hillsboro, Or.
Distance: 242 miles / 390 km
Time: 6 hours
Morton, Wash. is another mill town where the steam from the mills fills the valley with fog in the morning. Morton was once a center for railroad tie production, and once had one of the largest railroad tie loading docks in the world, whatever that means. I didn’t see it. It’s also the home town of Buzz from the Melvins!
My goal tonight is Portland/Hillsboro, but I really want to see Mount St. Helens, so I start out by heading the wrong way. Here, the forest service road approaches the Windy Ridge Viewpoint. The 1980 eruption, a couple weeks after my 4th birthday, is one of my most vivid early memories.
Mount St. Helens to right with Mt. Adams to the left and Mt. Hood in the distant center.
Wooden stairs climb to the overlook.
Spirit Lake, with a raft of thousands of dead trees left over from the 1980 eruption. As the mountainside slid into the lake, the water level rose 200 feet! Two. Hundred. Feet!
Mount St. Helens from the overlook. I didn’t expect it to be visibly gassing. That was a surprise.
After Mount St. Helens, I drove back through Morton to I-5 (sigh), and then down to Portland to pick my son Zeke up at PDX.
The Mariners were on the road, so Zeke skipped Seattle and we went to Hillsboro, Or. for a Hillsboro Hops game against their rival the Vancouver Canadians. The Hops won.
Naturally, I kept some semblance of score.
Friday night fireworks!
A Viking’s Walkabout: | Prologue | Day 01 Calif. to Az. | Day 02 Az. to N.M. | Day 03 N.M. to Colo. | Day 04 Colo. | Day 05 Colo., Kan., Neb. | Day 06 Part 1 Neb. | Day 6 Part 2 Neb. to S.D. | Day 07 S.D., Wy., Mont. | Day 08 Mont. to Alta. | Day 09 Alta. (Banff) | Day 10 Alta. (Grande Cache) | Day 11 Alta. to B.C. | Day 12 B.C. to Yukon | Day 13 Yukon | Day 14 Yukon to Alaska | Day 15 Alaska (Coldfoot) | Day 16 Part 1 Alaska (Atigun Pass) | Day 16 Part 2 Alaska (Deadhorse) | Day 17 Alaska (Prudhoe Bay) | Day 18 Alaska (Fairbanks) | Day 19 Alaska (Anchorage) | Day 20 Alaska (Anchorage) | Day 21 Alaska (Tok) | Day 22 Alaska to Yukon | Day 23 Yukon | Day 24 Yukon to B.C. | Day 25 B.C. (Prince Rupert) | Day 26 B.C. (Prince George) | Day 27 B.C. (Vancouver) | Day 28 B.C. to Wash. | Day 29 Wash. to Or. | Day 30 Or. | Day 31 Or. to Calif. | Day 32 Calif. |