Portland Saturday Market & Mount Saint Helens
When you think of Portland, Oregon, what are the first few things that come to mind? For me, it was green (as in recycling), hipster, man bun, and beard-- ha! On my first day in Portland visiting my sister and her boyfriend, I saw all of these things as soon as we entered the downtown area. I kid you not, there were plenty of man bunned-bearded hipsters riding their bikes around the city! In all seriousness though, I'm totally jealous of all of you living on the west coast. I'm no landscape photographer, but there is no shortage of amazing and breathtaking sights to photograph out there!
On the second day of my visit, Sam and Jon took me to the Portland Saturday Market downtown. There were talented local artists, food vendors and more. We walked to the legendary Voodoo Doughnut, where the line was out the door, wrapped around the block! Though we didn't get any goodies from this location, we did stop at Cartlandia before heading to the Mount Saint Helens area, where we enjoyed a delicious donut from the Voodoo food cart, as well as some other tasty foods!
The drive through the Mount Saint Helens area in Washington was gorgeous! The evergreen and pine trees on the west coast put the ones back east to shame. After a few stops to get some photos of the glorious mountains, we finally arrived at our first stop, the Ape Caves. It was a quick walk to the entrance of the caves, which are actually ancient lava tubes! When you enter the lava tubes, visitors are swallowed up by the darkness of the tubes, which is why you need headlamps! When we finished exploring the lava tube, we continued to Lava Canyon, where we hiked a mile through the forest and over a swinging suspension bridge, crossing over the river that flows through the canyon. To say my first couple days in Portland were exciting would be an understatement!
From the Saturday Market, we drove to Washington to the Mount Saint Helens area, where we explored the Ape Caves and Lava Canyon.
Those trees! It was pitch black in the lava tubes-- thankfully Jon had headlamps for all of us!
That view! This was my first glimpse at Mount Saint Helens as we drove through the park. Photos don't do her justice!
Don't miss the rest of my photos from this fabulous trip!
Part Two: Oregon Coast
Bonus: Sam + Jon's 10 Year Anniversary Session at Oswald West State Park