Washington - Mt. St. Helens and Gifford Pinchot NF - Meeting "Joe"

In the summer of 2017, my middle daughter had just graduated college. She wanted to go on an adventure, so she flew to San Francisco to meet up with her brother, and together they rented a car and drove up the coast to Seattle. Being the good mom that I am, I saved them the cost of a one-way trip charge on their rental car and met them in Seattle to pick up the car and do a solo road trip south to San Francisco. Anything for a trip!

I headed south and had some great adventures on the way. On the day I was driving south through Washington, along the east side of Mt. St. Helens. Everything was beautiful!

Along the way, I saw a sign that said, “Mt. St Helens viewpoint”, with an arrow. I made the turn and headed up a steep incline for several miles. Eventually, there was a parking lot, with a gorgeous view of Mt. St Helens. It was a nice spot regardless of the history of the volcano, and I spent some time walking around. I wouldn’t say “hike”, but there were a few short trails that followed the side of the mountain.

At the edge of the parking lot, there was an informational sign that talked about the day the volcano blew, and had 6 photos and told the story of a man (I forgot his name, lets call him Joe), that went up to that spot, with a friend, and the friends young daughter. Their plan was to set up a tripod and a camera and take photos of the volcano when it blew up. There had been a lot of news about it getting “ready to blow” and a huge area had been evacuated, but this particular spot was far enough away and not in line with the expected eruption.

THIS IS NOT MY PHOTO! I somehow lost all my photos from that day - just got this off the internet. It is similar to the ones that were on the informational sign.

They waited. Then, the friend looked through the viewfinder, and thought the mountain looked “fuzzy”, and they took their first shot. The volcano was just starting to erupt, and they ended up taking 22 sequential shots of the eruption – 6 of which were on the informational sign. They would have taken more, but the huge plume of smoke, ash, rocks, mud and all sorts of nasty stuff was headed right for them, so they packed up and high tailed it down the mountain in their van.

I thought it was fascinating, and also a bit stupid that they were that close – although it was probably 10 miles away from the volcano. It was a great spot, and I went on my way south.

Eventually, I came across a Gifford Pinchot National Forest visitor center, and stopped in. I went to the desk to ask the ranger if there were any short hikes that I could do, as I was ready to stretch my legs a bit. At the desk, under the glass was a copy of all 22 of the photos from “Joe”, the guy I read about at the viewpoint!

I half-heartedly said “Nice photos.”, and they guy behind the desk, with a nametag on that said “Joe”, said Thanks! They were his photos, and he was the guy that took them, and high tailed it down the mountain with his friend and young girl. He proceeded to talk for about an hour about the day, and how harrowing the ride down the mountain was, with mud being rained down on them, and with not being able to see much. They stopped and got shelter at the first building they saw and had a great story to tell forever!

That encounter is one of the reasons I love travel, you never know what you will see and who you will meet!