In early October we had a HuCo field trip to Mt. St. Helens. The students are learning about earth science this year, and we are so blessed to have such a unique geological feature within driving distance. Major kudos to our science teacher, Alexis Leonard, for pulling the whole field trip together, because it ended up being absolutely spectacular!
We met early Friday morning to carpool down. We had all 12 kids, plus ten parents and two younger siblings. Bryce and I got to ride in Bambita - the Menzie's Sprinter van.
We stopped for a pit stop right off the freeway before heading on the back roads and made quite a spectacle with a dozen+ middle school kids rolling through the gas station convenience store.
We first stopped at a sentiment dam near Mt. St. Helens. We hiked up and around and Alexis taught us all about the history of the area before and after the eruption. We were worried about October weather, but we ended up having gloriously gorgeous, sunny weather the whole weekend.
Following our hike and explorations, we made our way to the Mt. St. Helen's visitor's center where we had our very own Ranger Talk.
We had a little bit of time to explore the visitor's center before our big adventure began.
It was really windy!
The main part of our field trip involved the opportunity to stay overnight at the old (no-longer-in-use-by-the-general-public) visitor's center. Now a non-profit groups hosts schools and school groups like ours there for overnight adventures. What an awesome opportunity!
After we got situated in our bunk rooms (boys and girls separate), we went outside for some geology related relay games and activities.
Anytime you can combine learning about rocks and running around in a fun competition, you know you'll be successful.
Next the kids got into groups to do a geology/GPS scavenger hunt.
The moms took this opportunity to take our own hike/take pictures/chat.
The kids had short indoor lessons and activities as well.
After a super delicious dinner (included in our field trip package), we went out for a night/evening hike. Check out our beautiful view!
After the evening hike, we went back in for more games and geology learning.
Around 9pm, the kids got hot chocolate and cookies (actually, they had almost unlimited access to hot chocolate, so they drank a LOT) and had time to hang out and play games. We had the entire (huge!) old visitor's center to ourselves. Us moms again took advantage of the down time to have our own chat time.
The next morning we had breakfast, packed up our stuff, then headed out for a final hike.
We learned a lot about the area and the results of the volcanic eruption, but mostly we just loved being outdoors learning and exploring together.
After the hike, we stopped for a picnic lunch before heading back home. SUCH a great trip! I can't wait to do it again in three years with the next round of co-op kids.
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