Category Archives: Northwestern Mountains

WATERFALLS NOT OF THE GORGE – COAST RANGE WESTERN OREGON

Posted on by
3
PHEASANT CREEK FALLS
The double drop of Pheasant Creek Falls 124 feet altogether. One of the many Coast Range waterfalls.

The last post covered waterfalls I enjoy in southwestern Washington, mostly outside of the Columbia River Gorge, so now we move south of the River to waterfalls in the Coast Range of northwestern Oregon. Again, no way these lists are anything close to comprehensive and others may have other favorites. Plus, we have the two hour limit from Portland to help limit the waterfalling excursions. So, off we go to the Coast Range of Oregon to visit our first waterfalls. Links take you to the Northwest Waterfall Survey pages which give the waterfalls ratings 0-100. The highest rated waterfall in Oregon is Multnomah Falls with a rating of 89.92, so you have something to compare other waterfalls here to.

Continue reading →

OLYMPIC RANGE FROM A HIGH PERSPECTIVE

Posted on by
3

The Best Experiences are not always the Easiest

The best visit to the Olympics goes on high. Olympic National Park, much like North Cascades, is a climber’s park. Standing atop one of the many peaks gives you a true experience to the wild wonderland.

Looking south to Mt Ellinor from atop Mt Washington in the southeast corner of the Park
Continue reading →

BARRETT SPUR REVEALING THE ICY SIDE OF MT HOOD

Posted on by
3
Barrett Spur rises to the left of the 7,300 foot saddle with the north face of Mt Hood beyond.

Barrett Spur is one of my favorite places on Mount Hood. While some prefer Cooper Spur and others Cathedral Ridge, for me, it is the Spur.

The Spurt is a little bit difficult to reach both due to the altitude you gain and the route condition near the top.  But your jaw drops with the incredible views of the glaciers pouring down off the north side of the old volcano.

Continue reading →

CATHEDRAL RIDGE – RELIGION FOUND HIGH ON MT HOOD 7/29/2019

Posted on by
Reply

Up Cathedral Ridge to the summit of Mt Hood. Sandy Glacier on the right.

Original Timberline Trail was to cross to ridge on right – Yocum – from here.

In the beginning

I had been up to the base of Cathedral Ridge once before, but that was many years ago. With my new little toy – a 360-degree camera – it was time to go up for another view of Hood.

I lived on the west side of Portland for many years.  A definite advantage of living on the east side is the commute time to the mountain is so much shorter.  In no time we were at the big parking lot at the Tip Top trailhead with maybe about nine other vehicles.

This is the easiest access to some of the best parts of Mt Hood and it can get crowded.  It was only 8:30 in the morning when we got started, so we did not run across very many people before reaching McNeil Shelter. The rest of the day was different as we passed almost 200 people. Maybe at half of those folks backpacking the Timberline Trail.

Continue reading →

COOPER SPUR, A CLIMB INTO THE CLOUDS – 8/19/2019

Posted on by
6

The main climb is lies ahead of the Hiroshima Rock.

The Idea forms

We met an aspiring couple on top of Cathedral Ridge training for longer distance events. They mentioned for their money the views from Cooper Spur were the best on Mt Hood they had seen.  I have been past the Cooper Spur shelter several times as well as playing in the crevasses of Eliot Glacier, but have never gone up on the top of the Spur so, with a friend in tow, off we went. Thankful it was his car taking the beating on the washboarded road up and not mine.

Continue reading →

MOUNT MARGARET – ON THE BOUNDARY OF MT ST HELENS

Posted on by
4

Written after a hike to Mount Margaret on the Boundary Trail in 2019 from a series of hikes up into the Cascades. It was a very good summer in there were no complications from forest fires which seem to mar things in August and early September in recent years.

Lakes mount margaret boundary trail
Lakes and the Backcountry near Mount Margaret from the Boundary Trail.

BOUNDARY TRAIL

Save the best for last? Mount Margaret lies along the Boundary Trail, the 53
mile trail running from Johnstone Observatory in the Mt St Helens Volcanic National
Monument to Mt Adams. The trail was built in 1910 to service fire
lookouts on the border between the forest reserves of the Cowlitz – to the
north – and the Lewis – to the south.

continue here

HINDU SANCTUARY IN THE TUALATIN MOUNTAINS FOCUS ON DIFFERENT PATHS TO THE SAME GOAL

Posted on by
2
Sunlight filters through the trees along the Shrine Path high among the Tualatin Mountains.

“BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME”

“Build it and he will come”.  So, intones the voice of Shoeless Jackson to the Iowa corn farmer played by Kevin Costner in the 1989 film Field of Dreams. The quote often remembered wrongly as “Build it and they will come”. The film was a version of W.P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Jackson. In this case, we will choose the more popular interpretation which better describes this Hindu sanctuary high in the Tualatin Mountains just north of Portland. A retreat pointing towards a universal message of different paths leading to the same goal.

Continue reading

LITTLE MAN STILL ATOP HIS GAME ON THREE CORNER ROCK

Posted on by
10
Cuillin taking a break by Three Corner Rock. Aged 12, still getting up there.

Sunny, springtime – time to hike – 5-23-2019

Taking advantage of a sunny day to get up into the southern Cascades of Washington. With the snow gone, I hiked to the site of the old fire lookout up on Three Corner Rock. The last time – many moons ago – I was up here was with my first little corgi, Toffee.

Continue reading

HIGH ROCK and PLUMMER – TWO TIMES THE FUN – 8/6/2019

Posted on by
5

Panorama taken from Plummer Peak over the Tatoosh Range with Mt Rainier dominating all.

Beginnings

Two hikes today – High Rock and Plummer Peak – maximizing the long drive from Portland to Rainier National Park. The day warm and cloudless. Smoke from southern Oregon, however, had drifted up smudging the long distance views.

The first hike was to a former fire lookout south of the park known as High Rock. It is a well-known hike among Puget Sounders and short – 1.6 miles one-way. The lookout is one of only five remaining in the vast Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  It is steep gaining 1365 feet with much of the height gained in the second two thirds of the way up.

Continue reading

BILLY GOAT GRUFF ON TOP OF THE SILVER STAR – 6/10/2019

Posted on by
2

Looking from the south peak of Silver Star Mountain

Silver Star, Mt St Helens, Rainier Adams and Hood with the ridge running from Silver Star to Old Baldy.

The Silver Star

Silver Star is very visible from east Portland in the southern Washington Cascades. People rave about the views over the flower gardens along Ed’s Trail coming in on the north side. The approach road there is the crux of the hike. Your car makes it, or it does not. There are decent displays coming up on the Grouse Vista Trail – an old jeep road, like Ed’s. You don’t have that awful washed out road to deal with either.

Continue reading →