Mountains in Oregon and Washington

There are a number of Mountains within 100 miles of Portland. Below are a few:
Mt. Hood
Mt. Hood is Portland's pleasure mountain. It is the only mountain in the US that has year around skiing. Mt. St Helens is closer but you cannot ski on it where Mt Hood is the only mountain in the US that you can ski year around. You also can drive up to above timberline on a main highway.
To travel to Mt Hood, you will go out E. Burnside St, E. Powell (US26), or E. Division past Gresham. A little past Gresham they will come together and form US 26. About 55 miles east you will come to Government Camp, OR. Going up to Government Camp you will travel through a large number of places that a person can take GOOD pictures. A number of US Forest Service camps, etc. From Government Camp you will be able to take a side road up to Timberline Lodge. This lodge was built by the WPA in the 30s and you will want to take a full roll of film to document this jewel.
From Timberline Lodge in the winter you will be able to take a number of chair lifts up on the mountain to ski. In the summer you will first take a chair lift up to the start of the Palmer chair lift. Palmer chair lift is operated in the summer and from the top of it you will be able to ski in June, July, Aug, and Sept. The US Ski team uses it in the summer.
Also from Goverment Camp you can go to 4 other ski places on the mountain. One of them is Mt. Hood Meadows . Mt Hood Meadows has a large number of chair lifts and covers the SE part of Mt Hood where Timberline Lodge covers the SW part.
Keep going around Mt Hood you will come to the Columbia River and the North side of the Mountain. There is a different web page on the Columbia.
Up from Hood River is both Parkdale, and Cloud Cap Lodge. In Parkdale can use a large number of rolls of film in April, and June as this is the place that more apples are growing in the North West except Washington. You can take a number of pictures of apple trees blooming with Mt Hood in the background.
Cloud Cap Lodge is up on Elliot Glacier on the North side of the Mountain. The road is bad going up and you cannot take a long or wide RV, etc. There are some good pictures from Clouf Cap.
There are a number of other places in Oregon that you can ski but they are not within 100 miles of Portland. Some are on US 26 beyone of Mt. Hood. (Bachelor Mountain west of Bend Oregon.)
You will be able to go up to Timberline year around but in the winter you will have to both have traction devices on your car and have a US Forest Service parking permit.
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Mt. Adams
Mt. Adams is higher then Mt Hood and is about 35 miles north. The trouble with Mt Adams is there is no paved road up to or on Mt. Adams. The eastern half of the mountain is on an Indian Reservation and the western half is in a wilderness. There is a dirt road up to the west but it is bad. You can walk into the western half but that is the only way to get there. Do not travel to the east side. You can see this mountain from a long way on all sides.
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Mt. St Helens
Mt St Helens is the closest mountain to Portland. You can no longer drive up to it because of the eruption that took place in 1980. Before 1980 you could drive almost to the top on the north side. After the eruption over 2,000 feet on the top is gone and most of the north side is gone. Over 2 cubic miles went.
Mt St Helens is about 65 air miles from Portland NE of Vancouver Washington. To drive to the closes point take I-5 north of Vancouver to Castle Rock Washington and go east. There are 2 different National Park Viewing center that looks down into the north side. The US Park Department charges a small fee.
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Larch Mountain
Larch Mountain is a State Park that overlooks part of the Cascades. From there you will be able to see 3 or 4 of the mountains. To go there take I-84 to Troutdale (about 20 miles) and turn off onto the Old Columbia River Highway. From there on follow the signs. Before you get to Crown Point the road will take off of this highway and climb up to Larch Mountain. This State Park charges a small fee to enter.
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Saddle Mountain
Saddle Mountain is another State Park between Portland and the Beach. From there you can see a large part of the coast mountains.
To drive there take the Sunset Highway (US26) freeway west from Portland and about 60-70 miles from Portland look for the signs. There is a small charge there also.
Any Comments, Questions, or Inquiries: e_Mail is- w7wwg@jps.net
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Ted Peterson.