Pacific Northwest Trip: Day 1

I realize it's been nearly 2 months since we took this trip, however, because of many life events that happened after we got back, I just now have the energy to post these pictures along with the stories that go with them. As is the case with all of our extended trips, I think the best approach here would be to post each day in a separate post.

So, we left SLC on Sunday, June 2nd and drove straight to the base of Mt. St. Helens. It was a LONG day, but also really fun. Ramin and I always have a great time when we  go on road trips together :)

In Hood River, Oregon, the first picture of the trip was taken after we saw this bald eagle land on top of his tree perch. He was quite amazing!

It's quite obvious that this eagle perches on this tree often.

He took off and Ramin was able to catch him in flight.

We drove straight from SLC to the base of Mt. St. Helens. This was a view point along the drive. We were kind of worried at this point because clouds were completely covering the top of the mountain - we weren't sure if our climb the next day would have the same conditions.

Both of us with Mt. Saint Helens in the background

Of course we ALWAYS get our picture taken with the official sign!

On the Trail of Two Forests you can go into lava tubes. I was too freaked out to go into the dark tiny space myself...but Ramin did just fine. The camera light is a little deceiving. 

This was a long tube...

The exit!

This is the entrance to Ape Cave. It was already about 8 PM by this point but we figured, we're going into a huge cave where there's no light anyway!

Here I am in Ape Cave. It was incredibly dark but it was a MASSIVE lava tube cave - very cool.

Here we are at Marble Mountain Sno-Park - the place where we'd be starting our climb up the mountain. This is our awesome instant tent - we love this thing! Although it's not incredibly warm 

We slept here so that we could get an early start the next morning. We ended up waking up a bit before 5AM and started out at 6AM.