After spending some time along the coast, we headed back into the mountains southwest of Seattle. We skied Crystal Mountain, which is near Mt. Ranier. Since this ski resort was surrounded by National Forest and National Park, camping nearby was very easy! One evening, when looking for our campspot, we came upon the Ranger Air Strip, which was a public airstrip that is open to aircraft camping! No planes landed when we were there, but we did see a few elk!
We drove about 4 hours south to Mount Saint Helens to meet up with some friends and ski the volcano. It was six miles to the summit of the volcano, but 6,000 feet elevation gain. It was a long, steep hike, but well worth it for the long ski down. At the summit, the skies were clear so we could see the mile wide crater and some surrounding volcanos in the distant. We were able to see Mt. Ranier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and Mt. Adams. Since the volcano peaks are much higher than any land surrounding them, they looked massive. The glaciers atop of most of them just increased their beauty and size! A few miles from the trailhead for Mount Saint Helens, there were the Ape Caves. We were able to hike, crawl, and climb 1.5 miles through a lava tunnel using only our head lamps! This was a great side trip and now we are off towards Oregon!
