Or, more appropriately, Washington pictures. But the trip is about Portland, which is in Oregon, so this foray into the Evergreen State. Because if you’re this close, and you’ve never been there before, you want to see Mount St. Helens.
We’re in the woods, about a quarter of a way up the road that will take us near the volcano. We walked down one path, and then another, and over a stream, and down to the end of the path and then farther still:
The trees, they are very big:
One of the trails we strolled down:
Even in Washington you can’t get away from Alabama. We saw an elk grazing through the lens, but check out the bottom right corner:
It was overcast, and chilly, because you’re gaining altitude with each curve in the road, but we’re here to see the volcano behind those clouds:
There’s Mount St. Helens, partially obscured by clouds. On a clear day you can still see steam rising from the crater:
Though I prefer the pic that’s sitting two above for sentimental reasons, this is one of the best images I got of the mountain:
You meet interesting people on the side of a mountain. Some people get out of their car, take a picture and climb back inside to go on to the next place in their day. Others stop just long enough to read the signs. And then there was this couple who took this photograph.
I like to think I’m a fairly funny guy. I like to make people laugh. And if my jokes don’t do it I can always fall back on being funny looking. But they would hardly crack a smile. We traded pictures, though, they told us about the next view point and then they got back in their car and drove away.
I took this one from the road. Only passengers get this shot:
Look. Clearly there is snow on Mount St. Helens. There’s a small glacier on Mt. Hood. But I did not expect to see on the roadside. This is July. We’re wearing sweatshirts. It is a little bit chilly. And there’s snow. This is fundamentally wrong:
Overwhelmed by mountains? Have a flower:
We’ve transitioned from the phone’s camera to the D-SLR. The Yankee on our trail:
A Yankee-less trail.
Water on blades:
Mount St. Helens, just as the clouds moved out ever-so-briefly. We were told we’re about 10 miles off the face of the mountain sitting here:
