Crater Lake National Park is an old volcano that lost its top. Now in the crater of the volcano is the deepest lake in America. Early June is still an early time to visit this park. There were still piles of snow melting at the edges of the parking lot that was kept clear year round. The portions of the park that close for the snowy season were still closed. This limited the options for our visit. We stopped at the visitor center and took in the vista of the crater and lake. The views were amazing. No filter was required for any photos. The blue of the lake brilliant.

The funny thing we discovered at this site was the metal tunnels to the restroom entrances. Because this portion of the park remains open year round they want to make the restrooms also accessible year round. They have built metal tunnels from the parking lot to the entrance of each of the restroom doors to reduce the snow clearing work. There was not snow on or around them now, so it seemed a bit odd to have to hike through them to get to the doors. We only stayed an hour at the park since some sections were closed and to try to make up some lost time from our trip. It was definitely worth the stop.

Mount St Helens was the most anticipated stop on the trip. Emily was very excited to see a volcano that is still active. Some friends from the Seattle area met us, so that we could visit. It was wonderful to reconnect with the adults and for the little people to enjoy getting to know each other.

The diorama showed the different stages of the eruption and the effects to the local landscape. It was very well done and gave a great perspective of how devastating the eruption was. Emily and her new friend learned an amazing amount of information about the mountain. We visited two different viewing sights with museums and overlooks. We also took one hike to another overlook. We spent about three hours visiting the sites (one of the hours was spent in driving to the second viewing area).

We learned that there is a growing glacier in the crater. Pretty cool and pretty cold. Because we were high enough in elevation we had to bundle up.

Our budding readers enjoyed reading each of the signs aloud on the hike. They wanted to read each word to attentive ears. The kids were “helpful” to correct each others mispronounced words. Both kids will be entering 2nd grade come fall.

They competed in running too.

Thanks Stefan for sharing your photos!

After visiting the mountain we camped at a state park nearby. The rangers assured us that the next eruption would give warnings first, so we would be good for a couple of nights at least.

Emily is fascinated with volcanoes and talks often of them and her interest in wanting to see one. She has lots of questions. She is also fascinated with the story of the Firebird. We have checked out every book from the library and heard lots of versions of Firebird story. She also likes to listen to the music from the Firebird Suite by Stravinsky.

This week her two interests intersected and she was delighted. The girls discovered that we had the DVD Fantasia (Fantasia 2000 to be precise). Included is a sketch featuring the Firebird Suite. Emily discovered that there is a firebird who is the spirit of lava that chases down a sprite and burns her. It does sound sad, but the sprite survives and brings the forest beauty back. Emily has her own interpretation of the story. In her version the spite is the firebird and the spirit of lava is Kashchei.

Emily had Robby make a playlist of three of the movements from the Firebird Suite and created a dancing version of the story that she has preforming for us. We love her fascination and imagination with the story, but also her interest in exploring different versions of the same thing and make her own adaptation. We also love her growing interest in classical music.