Camping in the Gifford Pinchot III

 One of James's favorite places to visit in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest is Mt. Saint Helens. The kids enjoyed their dad telling them all about the history, and how much things have changed since he was a kid. Do you still remember the day this Mt. erupted?

 Indian paintbrush...one of my favorites

 James counted 449 steps to the top of Windy Ridge.

 It was worth the climb

 Not many tourists up here on this Monday post Father's day weekend. The snow melt and beaver dams made Meta lake "mega" lake. Kids took advantage of this opportunity to take a dip.

The water had overflowed into the interpretive patio area. It was only a couple feet deep here, and had warmed nicely by the sun. The kids took turns "polar plunging" into the lake by jumping off the rail, and then recovered in the patio pond.

Camping in the Gifford Pinchot II

 We took a stroll through the Grove of the Patriarchs.

 Ate lunch by the river, and said goodbye 😢 to Nathan and Clover's family.

 We continued the adventure onward to Mt.Rainier

 Found snow. Kids had fun engaging in an epic snowball fight with Dad and Uncle Jim.

 Waterfall detour

Stopped by Longmire to learn the history of an old mineral springs resort that once existed back in the late 1800's. Uncle Jim treated us to dinner at the lodge. It was another great day making memories.

Camping in the Gifford Pinchot

What a beautiful day with this adventurous bunch. Our first adventure was exploring Layser Cave.

Epic views of Mt.Adams.

Couldn't resist posting this picture of my niece Emery shining the flashlight under her chin 😁

We stopped for a short hike upstream to this water fall.

That's Tim jumping across the logs. He eventually made his way up the slope to the top of the falls.

Allison caught a minnow

And Weston, aka the forest creature whisperer, found this cute little salamander.

Perfect way to end the day. Uncle Jim playing his guitar while we all warm ourselves by the fire.

A View of Three Sisters

On our way back to the campsite, we decided to take the scenic route. A view of the three sisters wilderness from the top of the road.

What does your family do when they find a patch of snow in 70+ degree weather? This is one way to cool down, and have fun clobbering your family with soggy handfuls of melting snow.

Can you tell who was the last one to wake up? He was happy once his belly was full and his fishing pole was in his hand.

Our campsite was at Frissel Crossing Campground. I highly recommend this spot. Our campsite was huge and the river was 20 feet away from the picnic table. Our neighbors were barely visible and quiet. For Memorial day weekend, we lucked out.

Weston placing his spinner on the line in hopes of catching the biggest fish.

The hammock is always a great place to be.

We were sad to say goodbye. The kids had nothing but good things to say about our whole weekend, with repeated "thank-you's" to James and I. There was something for everyone here, and everyone took a little bit of it with them when they said good-bye. Another grand Pettett adventure.

Random Trail

The south fork of the McKenzie river has lots of different trails that flow into the forest, all covering beautiful landscape with hidden treasures to seek and find. On our second day of camping we went into the Waldo Lake wilderness.  

There were many waterfalls and flowers along the way.

Can you see Tim off to the right of the picture? This was a challenging cross. It was almost a game of don't touch the lava as we navigated on the rocks and fallen trees.

Love it when one of the kids finds a giant rock to climb and concur. It was just around this bin that Tim spotted a bear. Tim was in the lead on the trail, but came quickly running back to join the family to tell us all about the bear. He was able to only see its tail end, and discovered that the bear was just as scared to see Tim as Tim was to see him, as he darted off into the woods.

This picture of us all makes me laugh. We all look a little awkward, but there was only two photos to choose from. The first one made Weston look like a giraffe eating a sandwich...maybe I should have posted that one, hehee

Wild bleeding hearts? I think this is the first time I have seen these in the wild.

There were many massive trees growing along the trail. Here's my man child standing next to one.

And this is where our journey ended. The trail had been severely washed out. We tried navigating through it in hopes of finding it again, but no such luck.  We were a little disappointed, but happy for another grad adventure together.

Oregon grape is the name of this yellow cluster of flowers.

Little yellow pansies throughout our walk.