Mount Hood, Oregon

As mentioned in previous posts (click here), Oregon has seven wonders. The list of Oregon’s amazing places was determined by Travel Oregon in 2013. These natural beauties showcase the diversity of Oregon’s landscape, including its breathtaking Pacific Coast, high deserts, beautiful mountain ranges, lush forests and so much more. We plan to visit, or re-visit in some cases, all of these treasures over the next year or so.

I’ve covered three of these wonders so far in recent posts;

Oregon Coast

Columbia River Gorge

Crater Lake National Park

There is one more in western Oregon, Mount Hood, an active volcano in the Cascade Range. Click here to read my recent post about the volcanos in this range. The other three wonders are in the eastern part of the state, where summer temps are sweltering at the moment, so we will be visiting the remaining three later this fall.

Mount Hood, known as Wy’east by the Multnomah Tribe, is located 50 miles southeast of Portland and is the tallest mountain in Oregon measuring in at 11,240 feet (3,426 meters). It last erupted in 1907; however, its seismic activity is monitored regularly, like all the volcanos in the Cascade Range. According to the US Geological Survey, Mount Hood is considered the most likely to erupt of the Oregon volcanos; lovely.

The mountain attracts a wide variety of sports enthusiasts including those interested in climbing, hiking, biking, skiing, snow boarding, and is the only ski resort in the US to offer year-round skiing. We watched them on the slopes when we had lunch in the lodge.

The hub of activity on Mount Hood is located at Timberline Lodge, which was constructed between 1936 – 1938 by the Works Progress Administration. The WPA was a program developed during the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration to provide jobs during the Great Depression. This National Historic Monument is located on the south side of the mountain at 6,000 feet elevation. The lodge offers accommodations, conference rooms, restaurants, bars, wedding venues and more.

We enjoyed wandering around the lodge and grounds taking in the views.

Old photos, maps, antiques and other fun items from the lodge interior are pictured below.

TheTravelsketcher has some wonderful memories of Mount Hood and has this to share:

My dad and I made a bit of sports and video history many years ago in 1966 or 1967, I can’t remember which year for certain. Portable video cameras were new – large, heavy, sensitive to the sun, and in black and white. The recorder was also large and heavy. My father was a salesman for a local company in Portland. Through some connection of his we ended up that summer in a snowcat at around the 8,000 foot elevation of Mt Hood. Since Mt Hood is the only place in the continental USA with year round snow skinning, the US Ski Team was training there. We were going to video tape them skiing, something that had never been done before.

Dad sat on the roof of the snow cat with his feet dangling over the side, the cable from the camera led down into the cabin where I was operating the recorder. After a couple of hours we had videos of every member of the team. These were the days of Billy Kidd and Suzy Chaffee, but I don’t remember any of the names for certain of the people we videoed.

After training dad and I set up televisions around the Cascade Dining room. After dinner we showed the tapes we had made, the skiers enthusiastically gathered around the screens – they had never in their lives seen themselves ski. We heard so many comments of amazement, and “I didn’t know I did that!” For that evening dad and I were celebrities, but the group of skiers in that room would go on to be one of the best teams the USA has ever had. Hmm, could it all be because of our videos?? For this high school student it was a time I have always cherished.

Thanks to theTravelsketcher for sharing this wonderful memory.

We have enjoyed exploring and re-visiting these beautiful Oregon locations and are looking forward to seeing more over the next months.

What do you think of Mount Hood? Would you consider visiting? As always, I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment.

Wishing you grand adventures,

Tricia