Category Archives: Northwestern Mountains

CALDERA DE TABURIENTE – MAGIC IN THE CANARIES

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Northern and eastern rims of the Caldera de Taburiente.
Northern and eastern rims of the Caldera de Taburiente.

A recent trip took me to the Caldera de Taburiente on the island of La Palma on the western edge of the Canary Islands.  The Canaries – not named for the birds but for dogs the pre-Spanish people kept and ate – are hugely popular destinations for sunseekers from northern Europe.  The interesting geology of the islands is not what brings in the plane loads of tourists, though what they seek for a large part, results from geological processes.  Beaches, sun and alcohol, not necessarily in that order.  Fuerteventura, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote all promise kilometers of beaches for the sun-deprived northerners to escape the long winters with.

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DIFFERENCE A CENTURY MAKES – THROUGH THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER

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Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin - Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rock slide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today.
Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin – Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rockslide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today. The view looks north from the open part of the Larch Mountain crater. State of Oregon photo.

Larch Mountain stands as one of the three big shield volcanoes of the extended Boring Lava Fields. Rising to 4055 feet high, the mountain presents an array of contrasts. Once the site of intense logging industry, the mountain shows an amazing natural renewal a century after most of the timber production came to a halt. Pockets of old growth, wonderful views from the top and remnants of past industry all make Larch Mountain and its crater, a fascinating walk in the woods.

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A WALK IN THE TREES – THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER RIM

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View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.

We saw earlier how to climb to the top of the Larch Mountain crater from the Columbia River on the 1915 historic Larch Mountain Trail. But you don’t have to gain 4,400 feet over the 6.6-mile trek up to Sherrard Point. You can actually cheat and start at the top. Simply drive up Larch Mountain Road to its end. Fourteen miles up from the Columbia River Highway just west from Crown Point. Park in the large lot near the summit.

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SUNSETS ON THE SUNSET HIGHWAY – SHORTCUT TO NORTH COAST MAGIC

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The Goal – a fast connection to the Oregon Coast from Portland. Enter the Sunset Highway.

Until 1940, there really was no fast and easy way to reach the Pacific Coast from the main population center of Oregon – Portland.  At first, there were river steamers coming downstream from Portland to Astoria.  Then, the train to Astoria with a branch line going further south to Gearhart and Seaside.   The first road connection finally came in 1915 with the building of the Lower Columbia Highway, today’s US Highway 30. 

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MCCLELLAN ON A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHWEST

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Sign noting McClellan's passage through the dense forests of the southern Cascades.
Sign noting McClellan’s passage through the dense forests of the southern Cascades.

As future generals for the Federal Army during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan are also remembered for their service in the Pacific Northwest during the 1850’s.  Another, George Brinton McClellan made a cameo appearance. He led a group tasked with identifying a possible rail route through the Cascades.  In addition, they potential were to build a military road across the mountain chain so emigrant wagons could more easily reach the Puget Sound of Washington Territory.  This reconnaissance gave McClellan his first extended period of independent command since graduating from West Point with the Class of 1846.

Before George McClellan became the leading Federal general in the early Civil War, he served in the wilds of Washington, surveying for railroad routes.

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CORGIS ON PARADE – MAGIC IN THE COAST AIR

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Corgis mix it up in Ecola Creek at Cannon Beach Corgi Day.
Corgis mix it up in Ecola Creek at Cannon Beach Corgi Day.

My wife, our Corgi and I recently escaped the summer heat of the Willamette Valley for a day at the beach, Cannon Beach to be exact. Home of the annual Corgi Day at the Beach. It was an awesome day made more mystical by swirls of fog lying along the shore. Over 500 Corgis were running up and down through the sands.

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MOUNT HOOD LOOP – GEMS HIDDEN JUST OUT OF SIGHT

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Bridge over the Zig Zag River
Abandoned bridge over the Zig Zag River.

Chester Moores was a member of the first party to complete a loop around Mount Hood in an automobile in one day.  They did it as part of an expedition he wrote about in a wonderful article written in the 18 July 1915 edition of The Sunday Oregonian.  They spent eleven hours out on the roads, starting with the Columbia River Gorge Highway only completed in parts the year before.  Construction of that road in Hood River and Wasco Counties would not be completed for several years.  They ended up on earlier roads, much steeper and narrower.  He writes of encountering grades of 25 to 30%. The actual Mount Hood Loop would take longer.

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BREAKING IN A NEW MOUNTAIN CORGI – THREE CORNER ROCK

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View south from the base of the former lookout atop Three Corner Rock.

One of my first posts covered the hike on Three Corner Rock with my last mountain corgi, Cuillin. Even at 12, Cuillin showed the style, stamina and simple good looks of the corgi in the heights of the Cascade Range of southern Washington State. He lived up to his Gaelic name. Three Corner Rock is high enough to be classified a Munro, even a metric Munro since the peak is 3,550 feet high (1082 meters). For those not familiar with the quaint system of mountain classification in Scotland, Munros are mountains over 3,000 feet (914 meters) and metric Munros are over 3,300 feet (1000 meters).

Of course, the mountains in the Pacific Northwest are higher and more numerous than Caledonia. We call Three Corner Rock, the perfect place for a fire lookout, at least until it moved north to the San Juan Islands.

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DOGGIN’ IT IN THE FLOWERS ATOP DOG MOUNTAIN

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The next to last switchback before the summit of Dog Mountain is reached. Indian Point is the tall rocky point in the sunshine on the Oregon side to the right center with Wind Mountain further to the right on the Washington side of the river.

Ahh, Dog Mountain. This seven mile, 2800 vertical foot gain hike is one of the most popular in the Columbia River Gorge. I would guess it to be number three after Multnomah Falls and Angels Rest, both on the Oregon side easily accessed from the freeway I-84. Dog Mountain is on the Washington side in between the towns of Stevenson and White Salmon-Bingen with the trailhead right on Washington Highway 14. The hike is a workout, but the views over the eastern sections of the middle Gorge during the wildflower season of mid-spring are what brings the crowds out.

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WIND MOUNTAIN, A GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO THE DOG

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Looking across the Columbia River at Wind Mountain from Indian Point on the Oregon side of the Gorge.

Driving to the large trailhead at the bottom of Dog Mountain, Washington Highway 14 drives right around the base of another smaller peak with its own form of drama, Wind Mountain. A beautiful cone-shaped peak, Wind has a brother, Shellrock Mountain, on the opposite side of the Columbia River in Oregon. Both mountains are thought to be from the same volcanic intrusion which needed to be cleaved in half by the Columbia River.  Unlike Shellrock, Wind Mountain has a trail to the top.

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