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We took a day trip with Sea to Summit Tours & Adventures that traveled the Columbia River highway stopping at numerous waterfalls, vista point, a dam and salmon ladder, an orchard and other picturesque places, culminating with a stop at the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood.

Timberline Lodge was built during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration. It sits on the south side of Mount Hood, within Mount Hood National Forest. The lodge was dedicated in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Timberline Lodge is publicly owned and privately operated. We briefly looked around inside the historic hotel which has some museum-type displays. The lodge was the setting for The Shining and you can ask at the concierge desk to see the ax supposedly wielded by Jack Nicholson.

We skipped that and used our short time before heading back to Portland to explore the outdoors. Mount Hood National forest is one of the most visited National Forests in the US. It contains many developed recreational sites, including Timberline.

We were there in August and people were skiing! Mount Hood is Oregon’s highest point at over eleven thousand feet and is home to 12 glaciers. I believe the one we could see from the back of the lodge is the Palmer Glacier.

Mount Hood is a potentially active volcano and is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt. This made us a little nervous, hearing that as we approached the mountain, though the odds of an explosive eruption happening within the next 30 years is actually pretty low. Scientists estimate it at a 3-7% chance.

Mount Hood is in the Cascade Range. From the patio of Timberline Lodge, we could see several other mountains in the distance.