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Washington's Larch Mountain is next to the more famous Silver Star Mountain and shares some of the same views of Mount Hood.Oregon's better known Larch Mountain, the peak above Multnomah Falls, is about 15 miles southeast across the Columbia River.
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Backpacking at sea level sounds easy, right? It's not, at least in Olympic National Park.A five-gallon plastic laundry-soap bucket, complete with a secure fitting lid, makes for an odd-looking rectangular shape inside the pack. The bucket is mandatory gear, because it's the only thing that stops pesky raccoons from breaking into the food caches of a backpacker.
Rafters pause to check out the cabin once owned by Western author Zane Grey on the Rogue River. The BLM is acquiring ownership.Idaho's Salmon River is the only other river in the West where boaters can travel downriver and stay at a different lodge each night.
Backpackers with the Mazamas of Portland approach the south face of Mount Buckner in North Cascades National Park.Highest peaks: Tallest peaks within the national park boundaries are Goode Mountain, 9,200 feet; Mount Shuksan, 9,127; Mount Logan, 9,087; Mount Buckner, 9,080; Mesahchie Peak, 8,975; Black Peak, 8,970; Mount Redoubt, 8,956; Boston Peak, 8,894; Mount Spickard, 8,879; El Dorado, 8,868. Source: "Cascades Climbing Guide".
The granite spires of Castle Crags offer a distant view of Mount Shasta.Located at Exit 724
, the 4,350-acre Castle Crags State Park has 28 miles of hiking trails, with access to the Pacific Crest Trail and the Castle Crags Wilderness Area.
The Burke-Gilman Trail offers a view of Seattle over Lake Union from Gasworks Park.Oregonians planning to visit Seattle can use a city map to join the trail at Gasworks Park on the north shore of Seattle's Lake Union, or Marymoor Park in Redmond. Another good starting point midway along the trail is at Bothell Landing Park in Bothell.
Take time to smell the flowers when you hike up Lookout Mountain.Most Oregonians know that 11,235-foot Mount Hood is the tallest peak in the state. Few know that 6,525-foot Lookout Mountain is the next tallest peak in the forest.
The difference of 4,710 feet between the two tallest mountains sums up the character of the forest. Volcanism created Oregon's highest peak and set it amidst forested ridges that are dissected by rushing mountain streams. Lookout Mountain provides a fine viewpoint for those ridges, streams and for Mount Hood.
The row of mailboxes serves as the post office in Lonerock.Lonerock is a tiny incorporated community in southeast Gilliam County. Other than the parks on the Columbia River near the John Day Dam, the county barely registers with travelers. Gilliam County is mostly rolling wheat fields -- a good place to raise a family, but a place for travelers to keep on driving en route to somewhere else.
Unless you stumble across Lonerock.
Sol Duc Hot Springs is a modern resort in Olympic National Park.Where: On the Soleduck River, 12 miles inside Olympic National Park, 40 miles southwest of Port Angeles, Wash. (locator map).
Water: Chlorinated in a large concrete pool; natural sulfur water in three smaller pools; cooled from 128 degrees.
Amenities: Cabins (some with kitchens); adjoining duplex units fro groups; RV hookups; massage; restaurant; pool-side deli; gift shop; open late March through late October.
One of the dedicated campsites in the Mount Bargaret Backcountry, complete with view of Mount St. Helens.One of the more unusual hiking landscapes in the Cascades lies on the north side of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.
In a land where giant conifers, mosses and ferns should dominate, a pumice-covered desert continues to be the main feature 28 years after the volcano erupted.
Coming out of a tunnel on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail near Thorp, Wash.Question: Which Washington state park can offer hiking in a downpour, cross-country skiing through deep snow and biking in the sunshine, all at the same time?
Give up? Here's another clue. The park covers 1,612 acres and is more than 100 miles in length, which makes it very long and very skinny.
Riding from Bachelor to Bend; note the free ride jump in the background.Here are some of the best mountain bike trails around Bend. Click here for a story on OregonLive.com that I wrote:
Beginner trails
Riverside Trail: Perfect for a first off-trail experience, with six miles of out-and-back fun; follow the Deschutes River north from the end of Northwest First Street, two blocks north of Portland Avenue, in central Bend.The city's landscaping offers some of the best fall color in a Northwest town, usually late September to mid-October.
Be sure to bring your fishing pole for casting in the Lewis River on the Mount Adams loop.Three 35-foot-high waterfalls on the Lewis River and the lonesome west side of Mount Adams await visitors who drive an undesignated loop trip through Washington's southern Cascades. It's a great tour during the upcoming fall color season.
While the Mount Hood Loop in Oregon is widely promoted by tourist bureaus, chambers of commerce and the state highway division, the 193-mile loop past Mount Adams is largely ignored.
A fire lookout sits atop Table Rock, a butte just outside the Monument Rock Wilderness Area of Eastern Oregon.It's like going for a walk in the eastern Oregon sky
Monument Rock is one wilderness area that isn't necessarily pristine, but that doesn't mean it's not worth visiting.
Congressionally designated as wilderness in 1984, Monument Rock straddles the Grant and Baker county line and the Malheur and Wallowa-Whitman national forests boundary.
The Clackamas Lake Ranger Station is an overnight rental managed by the Mount Hood National Forest.Back in those days, it must have been on the receiving end of dozens of calls.
That was during the Great Depression, when out-of-work men were dispatched to the West's forests to perform conservation work. The first Civilian Conservation Corps recruits sent to camp at Clackamas Lake in the Mount Hood National Forest came from Chicago.
