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    • White River Canyon Overlook (2017)

      The headwaters of the White River begin in a vast maze of sandy canyons that fan out below the White River Glacier, located on Mount Hood’s south side. The geologic story here is surprisingly new. Few hikers making their way up the west rim of this maze on the Timberline Trail realize that much of what they see around them – including the ground they are walking on — is barely two hundred years old. 

      At about the time Lt. William Broughton of the Royal British Navy was sailing up the Columbia River in 1792, and giving Mount Hood its modern name, the mountain was just completing a remake of the entire south side in an eruptive episode that lasted for a decade, beginning in 1781. These eruptions produced an enormous amount of volcanic ash and debris that piled up to form the smooth slopes that Timberline Lodge is built upon, and that make up the gentle slopes of Paradise Park. 

      Eight-hundred-foot Crater Rock formed from lava at the center of the vents that produced these eruptions. The monolith stands today as an impressive reminder of the power that has once again gone dormant beneath the mountain. Yet, when the Zigzag and White River glaciers reformed on the upper slopes in the years after this eruptive period, they began to make quick work of the soft new ash deposits, with their glacial outflow carving the deep canyons we see today. 

      How much material has been removed by the White River in the 230 years since? This second image gives a visual sense. Within the White River Canyon, Mesa Terrace stands as a fragile slice of the valley as it existed after the eruptions, and loses ground each year to the two forks of the White River that straddle it. The eroded areas are shaded in tan.

      Below Mesa Terrace, itself, is the pre-eruption valley floor, revealed along the eroded flanks of the terrace where the White River has exposed downed forests flattened by the eruptions. Buried for more than two centuries by hundreds of feet of ash and debris, they have been well-preserved, giving scientists insights into the mountain as it existed before.

      Travelers along the Mount Hood Loop can appreciate where all of this eroded material has gone when they cross the sprawling, mile-wide White River floodway, downstream, where the river continues to reshape the landscape to this day.

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      Image Description: The first image shows a maze of grey, sandy canyons below the snow-covered summit of Mount Hood, with the cascading White River Glacier at the head of the canyon. Blue Lupine bloom in the foreground, on the brink of the vast canyon. The second image shows the same scene, but with graphics to illustrate how the mountain once looked before these canyons had been carved into recent volcanic flows from eruptions that occurred just 230 years ago. An 800-foot lava formation called Crater Rock was created as part of these eruptions, and is circled near the top of the mountain, 

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • Gnarl Ridge Ancient (2003)

      I visited this spot again last summer, twenty-two years after I took this photo. It was among my first with a digital SLR – back when that was still a novelty! This old Whitebark pine still survives here, in one of the harshest environments Mount Hood has to offer. 

      Gnarl Ridge is located high on the mountain’s southeast shoulder, where the ancient grove of Whitebarks gives the ridge its name. The trees here suffer the dual-punishment of howling winds and bitter cold from winter storms, followed by hot, dry summers, thanks to their southern exposure and the rain shadow effect on the east slopes of the mountain. 

      Whitebark pine have faced die-offs in recent decades, threatening this keystone species across the west. There’s more about the challenges these trees face in this 2013 blog article.

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      Image Description: An ancient Whitebark pine grows in the gray, volcanic sand and cinders on Mount Hood’s Gnarl Ridge. Its massive, contorted trunk lies low to the ground, bent by the extreme winters and bleached by hot summers on this high, exposed ridge. Old survivors like these give the ridge its name. Overhead, saucer-shaped lenticular clouds are forming over the Cascade crest, marking the approach of another Pacific storm from the west. On the far horizon, the rain shadow effect of the Cascade mountains can be seen in the golds, yellows and tans of desert country.

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • Rescued: Abiqua Falls (2017)

      Abiqua Falls is big and impressive, though known to relatively few, thanks it’s hard-to-find trailhead and rough scrambling required to navigate the “trail”.  The falls are renowned for the outstanding display of basalt columns in its massive amphitheater. The striking columns result from vertical cracks formed as the basalt lava flow cooled some 15 million years ago. The orange tint to some of the rock columns comes from orange and yellow lichens that grow on the vertical cliff walls.

      For many years the land around the falls has been held by the Mount Angel Abby Foundation, and public access was allowed. Earlier this year, however, the property abruptly went up for sale, triggering a mad scramble by waterfall lovers and state legislators to secure the falls under public ownership. A new bill that authorizes purchase of the falls and surrounding area has since been signed into law, and envisions a new state park with formal trails that improve on the sketchy user-built routes that exist today. 

      This post is a twofer, with a view of Abiqua Falls and a second image of the beautiful gorge just downstream that will also be forever protected in the new state park.

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      Image Description: There are two images shown. The first image shows tall, powerful Abiqua Falls thundering over a cliff made up of hundreds of thin, dark basalt columns, some decorated with green moss and orange lichens. Mist from the waterfall floats above a green splash pool. In the foreground, a small pool among river cobbles reflects the falls. A basalt boulder with patches of green moss borders the right side of the pool.

      The second image shows a very quiet section of Abiqua Creek, just downstream from the falls. The water is very still, and reflects the bright green and yellow mosses that blanket the boulders and cliffs bordering the stream. A pair of Bigleaf maple trees frame the stream on both sides, their trunks and limbs also covered in moss. Black basalt boulders are scattered in the stream in the foreground, also capped with bright green moss.

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • Devil Canyon Falls (2009)

      This post is a companion image to this new WyEast Blog article about the disputed Enola Hill Road access to Zigzag Mountain, at the west end of the Mount Hood Wilderness. I took this photo from a prominent viewpoint at the crest of Enola Hill that carries significant cultural and spiritual significance for area tribes, and thus has been the center of litigation over logging and highway building in past decades.

      The photo dates back to a reconnaissance trip several years ago in preparation for an eventual waterfall adventure to the base of the falls with a group of friends and waterfall admirers. I wanted to see if there was a way to bring a trail to this little-known falls, given that it is less than a mile from US26. 

      The linked article dives much deeper, but that trip to the falls made it clear that the best views of Devil Canyon Falls were from this more distant viewpoint, not-up close due to the steep and very rugged terrain. Nonetheless, it was spectacular, wild scene and an adventure I’ll never forget!

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      Image Description: A tall waterfall cascades down a mountain slope in a series of stairsteps, each tier a veil of bright white against the black basalt cliff. The falls are nearly concealed by a dense forest of deep green Douglas fir and Western redcedar trees that crowd the stream and grow among the cliffs and talus slopes. Bright-green new growth on Douglas fir boughs in the foreground reveal this to be a spring scene.

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • Spring Bloom in the Columbia Hills (2024)

      I visited this spot nearly to the day last week, and while the wildflowers were in full spectacle, the mountain was mostly hidden in clouds. Such is the unpredictable state of spring in the East Gorge. On the 2024 trip when I took this image, heavy downpours were pushing past the Cascades in dark, rolling storm cells. One cell caught me on the way out in a sudden burst of hail and blustery winds that moved on as quickly as it has arrived.

      Though soaked by the time I reached the trailhead, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Wild weather in the Gorge is my favorite way to experience the unique landscape there – one that is continually shaped by extreme conditions, be it winter ice storms, spring downpours or summer heat and drought. Our human discomfort when the elements turn harsh are the really the best way to appreciate the tough resilience and adaptation of an ecosystem that manages to thrive under these same conditions.

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      Image Description: Vibrant yellow sunflower-shaped blooms of Arrowleaf balsamroot light up a steep, bright green desert grassland, dotted with dark basalt boulders. Far below, a sliver of highway seems to lead to Mount Hood, on the far horizon. The mountain is white with new snow against brooding storm clouds. The wide Columbia River is below, to the left, with white swirls on its silver surface during spring runoff season. Downstream, the town of The Dalles can be seen, tucked in below Mount Hood.

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • Clackamas Iris (2011)

      This beautiful dwarf iris grows only in the lower Clackamas and Molalla river canyons. Despite its super-local range, it’s not considered endangered, though it’s still a rare thrill for wildflower seekers to find them in bloom. These little plants grow in open, sunny gaps in Douglas fir forests and produce their pale blue or white blooms in late spring. This photo was taken on a rocky outcrop high above the water along the Clackamas River Trail. 

      The lower Clackamas River canyon has burned three times in the past two decades, most severely in the 2020 Riverside Fire. The Clackamas River Trail has since remained closed by debris and landslides from this latest fire, so we won’t know until it reopens how the Clackamas iris has fared. If forest recovery in other recent burns is any indication, the iris here should have survived – and in fact, should be thriving in the more open conditions created by the fire.

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      Image Description: A trio of white iris bloom in a diagonal line, accented with narrow yellow throats. The blooms are framed by bright green, strap-shaped iris foliage. A neighboring fern sneaks a frond into the right side of the image.

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • Ortley Pinnacles in Spring (2022)

      Named for a long-vanished Gorge settlement near Mosier, the Ortley Thrust is a prominent upward fold in the massive bedrock of Columbia River Flood Basalts that form the walls of the Columbia Gorge. Here, the once-horizonal layers of lava have been pushed upward by enormous tectonic pressures that have created uplifted ridges across this part of the Columbia Basin. The river has been here longer than both the ancient basalt flows and subsequent geologic uplift, keeping pace as it continually carves its channel through the slowly rising land around it.

      The Ortley Pinnacles are part of the larger thrust formation, marking a seam between two major flood basalt groups. The flat basalt flows here have been turned on end from the uplift pressure. In much more recent geologic time, a series of massive ice age floods scoured the Gorge walls, stripping away loose rock to reveal the rugged maze of vertical basalt spires and fins we see here today. In early spring, emerging wildflowers paint up the slopes in shades of green while Bigleaf maple blossoms provide the bright yellow highlights.

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      Image Description: A series of jagged, rocky basalt fins and pinnacles at center rise against steep slopes covered with the spring green of emerging wildflowers. Bigleaf maples are sprinkled across the slopes, marked by their bright yellow spring blossoms.

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • Smiling Face Rock (2020)

      Folks heading up to visit the iconic wildflower displays each spring at the Columbia Hills Preserve on Dalles Mountain might not notice this solitary basalt outcrop along the way, but it holds a surprise for their return trip, especially in late spring and summer evenings: in the right light a smiling face appears in the cliff face, near the top of the rock. Can you see it? To some, it might look like Thalia, the Greek theater muse of comedy. To others it might look more like a smiling Jack of Hearts. Or for space flick nerds, how about Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy?

      This handsome rock has no official name. It’s also located on private land adjacent to the Columbia Hills preserve, though it is partly owned by area tribes who have been coordinating with public land agencies to protect iconic East Gorge places like this in perpetuity. 


      It’s an especially beautiful spot in spring, when the landscape is green with new grass and emerging wildflowers. The rock is also home to a colony of yellow-bellied marmots whose network of dens straddle Dalles Mountain Road. If you’re patient, they can be viewed from pullouts along the road when they are most active in the morning and evening.

      Here’s a closer view with the evening light hitting the “smiling” north side of the rock. Can you see it now?

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      Image Description: A haystack-shaped basalt monolith rises above bright green, windswept desert grasses and wildflowers on an early spring evening. Beyond, the deep blue Columbia River glides past towering cliffs. In the far distance, rolling desert hills are carpeted with spring green. Wispy white clouds complete the backdrop against a pale blue evening sky.

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • McNeil Tarns (2010)

      It might be the most Zen spot on Mount Hood. This is the western sibling of twin tarns located high on the shoulder of Cathedral Ridge, just below McNeil Point. The Timberline Trail travels between the pair (along the far shore in this view) making these a familiar highlight for thousands of hikers each year. 

      This early September scene captures an early dusting of snow on the mountain after the arrival of the first wave of cool, fall weather. Over the course of summer, the tarns shrink dramatically from their springtime high-water mark, with seasonal grasses quickly carpeting the expanding shorelines. 

      These tiny lakes fill hollows made by a long-vanished ice-age glacier that once filled this alpine basin. The patch of snow near the top of the distant ridge marks were the glacier once originated, and the cliffs on the left and mark the valley it carved.

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      Image Description: A fresh dusting of snow covers the rugged, pyramid-shaped summit of Mount Hood in this view from the famous Timberline Trail. A brilliant blue sky is accented by thin wisps of swirling, white clouds. The mountain is peeking over a high, rocky ridge towering over a still mountain pond that mirrors the surrounding green meadows and alpine forests. 

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)

    • Ponderosa Frost Forest (2022)

      The Columbia Gorge creates all kinds of uniquely local weather by virtue of funneling mild, moist Pacific air into the cold, dry interior east of the Cascades – or vice-versa, depending on the wind direction. In winter, this can create the rare instance of sunny weather on the normally rainy west side of the mountains and dank, freezing fog on the normally dry arid east side. For folks living in the East Gorge, this isn’t welcome weather. It’s an uncomfortable mix of high humidity and temperatures hovering around freezing that can sometimes linger for weeks.

      One upside? When this cold, gray condition persists for more than a few days, it can create a magical winter landscape in the forests along the east slopes of the mountains, especially at the margins of the sea of fog that fills the Columbia basin. Often, warmer sunny skies are just a few hundred feet above the foggy forests, just out of reach. This scene on the slopes of Lookout Mountain is along the eastern fringe of the Ponderosa forests, where the pine forests give way to Oregon white oak savannah in the rain shadow of the Cascades.

      Unlike a silver thaw where freezing rain covers trees in a glaze of clear ice, these Ponderosa are flocked with delicate ice crystals that continue to grow as fog conditions persist – sometimes up to 2 inches in length. The stillness of the fog is a secret ingredient, however, as even the slightest wind will bring them down in a blizzard of fine crystals.

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      Image Description: A group of tall Ponderosa pine rise up from snow-covered ground into a freezing, foggy sky. Their limbs are flocked with a thick coating of ice crystals formed over several days in the fog. Their distinctive reddish-barked trunks stand in warm contrast to the cool blues and winter white of this scene.

      Photo © WyEast Images (2026)