Mount St. Helens from Larch Mountain.
Larch Mountain isn't
exactly in the Columbia Gorge, but you get there by taking a road off
the Historic Columbia River Highway, then a short trail (short,
¼ mile
but with 121
steps to climb). The lookout was cut out of solid rock which protrudes out
from the side of the mountain with sheer rock walls on three sides. Be
sure to bring your binoculars! From this lookout on a clear day you can see the five [actually nine; see
below] snow-capped volcanoes shown here.
Looking across the Gorge, you can see
Mount St. Helens, which is 46 miles to the northwest, and is 8,363 feet tall.
. .
. . . and, going clockwise, Mount Rainier, loftiest of the Cascade peaks,
approximately 100 miles to the north, slightly east, and 14,410 feet tall.
Next comes Mount Adams, 54 miles to the northeast, and 12,307 feet tall.
Mount Hood, the tallest mountain in Oregon at 11,235 feet in elevation,
lies 22 miles to the south. In this direction we overlook Bull Run, Portland's
watershed.
Mount Jefferson, Oregon's second highest Cascade volcano, lies 62 miles to
the south, slightly west, and is 10,497 feet high. If you look at the extreme
left side of the photo, you can see a group of mountains, the Three Sisters,
about 100 miles away, slightly to the east. Also in that group is Broken Top
(the mightiest of the ancient volcanoes),
which makes nine snow-capped peaks visible from Larch Mountain (visible, but
not all are distinguishable). It could be that Mt. Washington is visible there
also. Hard to tell.