People have a tendency to underestimate how stressful and tiring flying can be, especially for the elderly. It's not just sitting and relaxing on the plane. There's the hassle of changing your daily schedule, typically getting up early in the morning to be at the airport in time to stand in line(s), get checked in, pass through security, wait in a holding area, eat terrible food, breath low-pressure air with little oxygen, wait for baggage, wait for a rental car, drive that unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar neighborhood, etc., etc., etc. The one saving grace of flying into Portland for a trip that starts out headed for Mount St. Helen's is that PDX is on the north side of the city, so that once you've done all the above and exit the airport you can hop right onto I-205 and immediately get out of town without fighting too much traffic. But your mom is going to be pretty tired by that point, as are you if you have to push her everywhere she goes. It would be much to your benefit to just settle in and relax as soon as possible. Indeed the suburbs of Portland, just over the state line would be ideal. Then the next morning you'll be leaving town and not having to fight rush hour traffic. Look Orchards, Walnut Grove or Salmon Creek for some place to alight on that first night. After that there's not much on your way to Mount St. Helens.

If you don't already own one, you can usually rent a folding wheelchair either through your local pharmacy or medical supply store. Since you are planning on being on 'rough' ground, do NOT get what is known as a Companion Chair. These are smaller, less costly, and fold more compactly for storage on an airplane, but they come with four small wheels, have to be pushed (the occupant cannot self-propel them), and are suitable only for prepared surfaces (floors and sidewalks). Even wheelchair-accessible walkways in most national parks will give them serious problems. Once you know the approximate dimensions of the folded wheelchair you'll be using, contact your airline to make sure whether it will fit in the storage closet in the cabin. If not, you'll have to check it as baggage, use the airport cart and airline wheelchair service to board and deplane, and wait at baggage claim for your chair to be delivered. More stress.

Most national parks and monuments make a concerted effort to give ADA compliant access to their most popular sites, as well as short hiking paths that you can probably handle. This will not necessarily be the case for national forests. So be sure to check in at the Visitors Center and/or Ranger Station upon reaching any park for the first time. Also, it's worth checking each of the national lands you plan on visiting to see what they charge in the way of entry fees. They usually charge per car, and if the total for all the places you plan on stopping is greater than $80, then buy and annual parks pass ($80) at the first pace you come to that charges an entry fee.

AZBuck