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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue readingLook out to the east from Portland and your attention draws to the snows and glaciers of Mt. Hood. But search a bit to the left and you can notice another bulky mountain with a notch on its northern rim. This is Larch Mountain one of three shield volcanoes sitting in a line of volcanic vents making up the Boring Lava Field range stretching from Mount Sylvania on the southwest edge of Portland all the way east past Larch Mountain to Beacon Rock standing near Bonneville Dam, almost thirty miles apart in a straight line.
Larch Mountain sits on the western end of the canyon of the Columbia River Gorge rising just over 4,000 feet above the river running about three straight miles to the north of its peak. Coming from the east along the river, Larch Mountain is the last significant Cascade peak on the Oregon side of the Gorge before the mountains begin to ease topographically into the northern end of the Willamette Valley.
Continue reading