Oregon's High Point Trip Reports

The highest point in Oregon is on Mt. Hood at 11,239 feet above sea level. Mt. Hood is located in the northwest corner of the state in the Cascade Mountains. It is a stratovolcano, characterized by a steep profile containing many layers of lava from years of eruptions.

Mt. Hood has had multiple names. The Multnomah Indians were the first to give it a name, calling it Wy'east. It is not certain exactly where the name came from. There are stories that have been passed down involving broken hearts and battles, but no one knows for sure. In the 1790's William Broughton, a lieutenant in the British Royal Navy, named it Mt. Hood after British Admiral Samuel Hood. Hood was best known for his service in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary War. Lewis and Clark saw the mountain in 1805 and named it Timm (or in English - Falls) Mountain.

Mt. Hood is a glaciated mountain containing twelve named glaciers. A glacier is defined by Webster as, "A large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface." Glaciers can only be found in nine states.

• Alaska has the largest amount of glaciers of all the states, with numbers reaching close to 100,000. Most of them are not named. Bering Glacier is the largest measuring over 200 kilometers (or 124 miles) long.
• Washington has the second largest amount of glaciers in the states. They can be found in the Olympic Mountains, the Northern Cascades, and the Goat Rocks Wilderness.
• Oregon has glaciers in the Cascade and the Wallowa Mountains.
• California has 20 named glaciers on Mount Shasta and in the Sierra Nevada Range.
• Colorado's 14 glaciers are all located in the Front Range.
• Montana has 62 named glaciers located in th Lewis and Livingston ranges in Glacier National Park.
• Wyoming has 38 named glaciers in the Bighorn Mountains, Absaroka Mountains, Teton Range, and Wind River Range.
• Utah has only one named glacier. Timpanogos is located in the Wasatch Range.

Part way up Mt. Hood is the Timberline Lodge. It was constructed by the Civilian Conversation Corp (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was on hand for the dedication in 1937. In the 50's the lodge fell into disrepair and was almost closed. Richard L. Kohnstamm stepped in and turned the place around. He was an unlikely candidate because he didn't have any experience with running a hotel. His family continues to run it to this day. Because of all the efforts of the Kohnstamm family, the lodge has been restored with much of the original furniture still in place. The majority of people that come to the lodge are there to ski. The ski runs are open year round. To cut down on wear and tear on the lodge, the Wy'east Day Lodge was constructed in 1981 and currently houses all of the skier services. It has a much more modern look than the lodge and looks out of place next to the beautiful old lodge. Aerial scenes of the lodge were used during the opening scenes of the 1980 movie The Shining.

2012, June 7th - 10th - High Pointers Konvention

Coming Soon: Trip Report and Pictures!