Back in the land of volcanos

We stayed at White Pass and observed a very nice dark sky despite the smoke from fires burning throughout Eastern Washington.  We were able to observe Jupiter and it's 4 moons and the Andromena Galaxy with our binoculars.  Truly spectacular to see something 2.5 billion light years away with the naked eye.  Also pondering us as we laid on the ground looking up that someday our solar system will be spared somehow when the Andromena Galaxy collides with our Milky Way Galaxy 4 billion years from now.  People get paid to figure that kinda of stuff out.

I'm going to take a copy of this picture to show people in Nepal our style of  mtns, 14,410 foot Mt Rainier.

Today's view of Mt St. Helens from a viewpoint about 8-10 miles from the volcano where the photo was taken below. 

The man who took this picture survived on May 18, 1980. He and the people he was with ran and drove like hell to survive.  57 other people perished in the eruption.  I didn't hear the eruption in Seattle, but my parents who were out on the Pacific Ocean north of Copallis heard the blast.

We're back in the land of volcanos.