Mt. Hood Oregon

One of the attractions on our must see list, while in northern Oregon, was Mt. Hood.

We would have gone to Mt. Hood on our second day of exploring the area, but it was Saturday, and I’d heard so much about the Saturday Market at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, that we decided to go there instead.

For years I have been reading about the fabulous food scene in Portland, so that was on my to do list as well. It took forever to find a place to park that was close to the Saturday Market. When we finally found a parking spot we only had a short walk to the market. But to get there we had to navigate past the myriad of tents that the homeless were living in. Those tents lined the streets, pretty much everywhere in Portland!

Strolling the aisles of the Saturday Market was really fun. It was like going to an art show and there was a great deal of impressive workmanship on display. Of course, living in an RV we really need to be very selective about what we buy. So after a brief stroll to the waterfront to snap a picture of the Willamette River, we headed back to the car to take a driving tour of Portland.

It was disheartening to see more tents and dilapidated RVs lining each and every street! And all of those fabulous restaurants that I had on my radar were closed. What was once a glorious foodie paradise is now a tent city that we had no desire to return to.

We were so happy that our RV park was in a gorgeous suburban area. And with a month there we had plenty of time to visit so many of the fabulous attractions that northern Oregon has to offer.

So on Sunday we went to Mt. Hood. Knowing that it was about a 200 mile round trip, we left early and planned on stopping for pastries and coffee on our way. We reached the little town of Sandy, Oregon and the home of Joe’s Donuts. Yes. I have a town named after me. Doesn’t everyone?

Joe’s Donuts has been around since 1974 when a guy named Joe opened the shop, fresh out of high school. And Steve and I could certainly understand why he has stayed in business so long. We got a couple of HUGE apple fritters that were so delicious we wanted more. Sadly, we ate them while continuing our drive to Mt. Hood, and it was too far to head back to purchase more. Picture me pouting!!!

Mt. Hood is immense. You can catch glimpses of it from the highways, as we did on our way to Multnomah Falls. But we didn’t really appreciate its enormity until we drove all the way to the mountain.

According to Wikipedia, Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about 50 miles east-southeast of Portland, on the border between Clackamas and Hood River counties. A cinder cone with flanking lava flows formed The Pinnacle on Hood’s north flank about 130,000 years ago. At roughly 100,000 years ago, a large debris avalanche removed the summit and north flank of Mount Hood and generated a large lahar that flowed down the Hood River valley to the Columbia.”

One of the things Mt. Hood Oregon is most famous for is that it is ski season all year long. An abundance of snow falls on Mt. Hood. The annual average is 400 to 500 inches of snow. That’s a lot of snow. And because it’s mostly the wet and heavy variety of snow, known as “Cascade Concrete”, the snow tends to stick around into the summer months.

The ability to ski Mt. Hood all year long is only part of what makes it so popular. It is also the second most climbed mountain in the world, with the most climbed being Japan’s holy peak, Mt. Fujiyama.

Steve and I are no skiers, so we drove up to Timberline Lodge to get the closest look we could. Hood stands 11,239-feet high and is the highest point in Oregon. From Timberline Lodge, which is at an elevation of 6,000-feet, we could get a much better feel for just how amazing Mt. Hood really is.

As we drove away along the Mt. Hood Scenic Loop we still marveled at how beautiful a mountain this was.

On our way to the Hood River, we found a wonderful farm along the Scenic Loop. So, of course, we just had to pay a visit for some fruit and jams. The stone fruit trees were in full bloom when we were there at the end of April. I’m sure by now they have had bumper crops of peaches, plums, cherries and nectarines.

Continuing on we reached the beautiful Hood River. We were so close to Washington State that all we had to do was drive across the bridge and we would be in White Salmon WA. But we restrained from going and saved Washington for our next destination after our stay in Oregon.

By the time we returned to Ladybug we were exhausted from an entire day of exploration, but excited to see what our next outing would reveal.