Summer Vacation Trip - Day 2

I woke up at 0415 (pesky East Coast time...) and did some more repacking. Mollie was still asleep so I drove to Walmart (Woodland, WA) to buy supplies. I had to wait for them to open at 0600 but eventually got everything we needed - I even found a new motion sickness medicine made with "essential oils" and Mollie ended up really liking it. Was finished shopping at 0620 and, back at the hotel, I ate breakfast with Mollie. We then packed the car and checked out of the hotel (Rodeway Inn) at 0645. We were on our way less than 15 minutes later, heading east with high expectations so we could get a look at the terrain near the world famous volcano, Mount St. Helens! We used WA-503 (and the Spur east of Yale) to get to southern end of National Park area. We stopped at Yale Park (boat launch on Lewis River) for pretty photos and then used FS-83 to reach the Ape Cave, which we'd found in the Atlas and learned more about on Google. The cave was a nearly two mile lava tube (underground) south of the volcano peak. By 0900, we had parked and, armed with two headlamps and two flashlights, we went walking into the Lava Tubes. Mollie was nervous at first about being in the dark, bats and Bigfoot but she did well inside the pitch black (and chilly) environment. We encountered a young couple that was coming out of the tube and they made Mollie feel better. The Lower Tube was about 0.75 miles long but we turned around by the half mile mark. We met up with a solo hiker on the way back and found even more people at the entrance. I'm very proud of Mollie for fighting through her hesitation and completing the unique hike. It was getting warm by the time we reached our car again and we headed back to FS-83 and drove further east (to the end of the road), stopping for lots of photos of the south side of the volcano. I'd last visited in 1984, when the damage from the 1980 eruption was stark and extensive. Almost 40 years later, there is much less evidence of disaster and the mountain looked rather serene... At Lava Canyon, we took a nature hike to see the falls and learned a lot about the various eruptions over the years. We saw a mama and baby deer. It was getting much hotter by then so we decided to head back towards civilization. Glad we detoured out this way! By 1000, we were on our way back towards I-5, using WA-503 (construction) and US-12. Mollie did manage to get a National Forest stamp at the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest Office. We drove down towards the Columbia River and, just before we left the state of Washington, located Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Mollie got a NPS Passport stamp and we walked around the "living history" site, a reconstructed palisade and trapper camp for the Hudson Bay Company. We learned a lot about the fur trade and the history of Oregon Territory. The HBC made millions of dollars from the fur trade in the early Nineteenth Century at this location and we learned about the Company's trapping, packing, shipping (18000 mile journey), and European Clothing manufacturing activities. This place was almost part of Canada but it is now about half way between the start and finish of our adventure in the US Pacific Northwest! Once we'd had our fill of the park, we drove back to I-5 and crossed the river into Oregon. We got gas in Portland (1325) - they were alarmed that I had tried to pump my own fuel but the law had been changed recently to allow it. We encountered a lot of traffic on I-5 on the way through town. Mollie not a fan of the atmosphere in the city - there were a lot of homeless people, prevalent weed use (and billboards), along with high gas prices. We ate our lunch (snacks) in the car and drove east on I-84 into the Columbia River Gorge. We got a really good view of Mount Hood. Mollie spotted a dead beaver on the side of the road. We stopped at (busy) Multnomah Falls and took pictures, got ice cream and another NPS stamp. We then backtracked to I-205 and (after a lot more traffic) eventually got moving again south of Salem. We drove all the way to Grants Pass without stopping. We listened to a lot of XM radio (free in our rental car) and talked a lot about life and current events. Erin called to hear about our adventure. Once off the interstate, we tried to get food at In & Out Burger (too busy) but settled for some chicken strips and fries when I stopped for gas (1915). After a short break, we used WA-99 and US-199 to drive to Cave Junction. We then took WA-46 to the south to reach the Oregon Caves Chateau (arrived at 2000). On the way, we saw two deer. After we checked in, Mollie called Nicky on the courtesy phone (we had no internet or cell service) and we explored the property. We wrapped up the day by relaxing in our room (window open, cool air, pretty waterfall) before going to bed at 2200. It was so pleasant that we slept with the window open!