Mount Hood
And then we were back on the road. We had a long way to go, so we drove back to the bridge at the town of Hood River so we could cross over to the Oregon side and take the interstate back to Portland and beyond.
The town of Hood River stands at the point where its eponymous river meets the Columbia. It's a nice little tourist town that has in the last 20 years or so become an extremely popular spot for wealthy windsurfers from the east side metroplexes. Now there's a nice little downtown with a good bookstore and at least one good restaurant.
On a clear day like this one, you can see Mount Hood rising above the town a mere 25 miles away. Mount Hood is another one of those Cascade stratovolcanoes, rising to an elevation of 11,249 feet. That's 11,164 feet higher than the 85-foot elevation of the Columbia at Hood River. Mount Hood has gone through three major eruptive periods in the last 1,800 years, with each episode featuring explosive erutions, pyroclastic flows, and lahars. The last of these ended in 1782. There was a minor eruption here in 1907, but the mountain's been quiet ever since. If that ever changes, the Hood River will carry a massive debris flow right over this town.
Editor's Note: I was still in Washington when I took this picture, but everything you're looking at is in Oregon, so it goes in the Oregon file. This marks the last time we left Washington. I have taken the last picture of Washington I'll take for at least five years.
Mount Hood
And then we were back on the road. We had a long way to go, so we drove back to the bridge at the town of Hood River so we could cross over to the Oregon side and take the interstate back to Portland and beyond.
The town of Hood River stands at the point where its eponymous river meets the Columbia. It's a nice little tourist town that has in the last 20 years or so become an extremely popular spot for wealthy windsurfers from the east side metroplexes. Now there's a nice little downtown with a good bookstore and at least one good restaurant.
On a clear day like this one, you can see Mount Hood rising above the town a mere 25 miles away. Mount Hood is another one of those Cascade stratovolcanoes, rising to an elevation of 11,249 feet. That's 11,164 feet higher than the 85-foot elevation of the Columbia at Hood River. Mount Hood has gone through three major eruptive periods in the last 1,800 years, with each episode featuring explosive erutions, pyroclastic flows, and lahars. The last of these ended in 1782. There was a minor eruption here in 1907, but the mountain's been quiet ever since. If that ever changes, the Hood River will carry a massive debris flow right over this town.
Editor's Note: I was still in Washington when I took this picture, but everything you're looking at is in Oregon, so it goes in the Oregon file. This marks the last time we left Washington. I have taken the last picture of Washington I'll take for at least five years.