How To Visit 6 Lovely Volcanoes In The Cascades

1. Mount
Baker

If you’re going south from Vancouver, Canada, you will encounter Mount Baker first. It rises 10,781
feet high, the youngest (no more than 140,000 years old) of them all. “It is also second-most heavily glaciated after Mount Rainier
and the second-most thermally active after Mount Saint Helens. t is also one of the snowiest places in
the world, setting the world record for snowfall in a single season at the
Mount Baker Ski Area in 1999.”

2. Mount
Rainier

“Mount
Rainier is the Cascade Volcanic Arc’s leader in beauty and risk. An active
volcano (the last eruption was in 1894) it is the most glaciated peak and most
prominent mountain in the contiguous U.S. It is also the tallest in the
Cascades at 14,411 feet. The area around it is so beautiful that it has been
preserved as the Mount Rainier National Park. But it is also considered one of
the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, listed on the Decade Volcano list
because of its large amount of glacial ice that could produce massive lahars
that would threaten a lot of life and property, especially considering the city
of Seattle is just 59 miles southeast of its peak.”

3. Mount
Saint Helens (headline photo)

“Mount Saint
Helens is just 50 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon, and 96 miles south of
Seattle. It is the most active volcano in the Cascades Volcanic Arc, most known
for its major eruption — the deadliest and most economically destructive
volcanic event in U.S. history — on May 18, 1980. In fact, it reduced the
elevation of the mountain’s summit by more than 1,000 feet, leaving a mile-wide
horseshoe-shaped crater.” In 1983, the
Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument was opened to preserve the
volcano and allow for the scientific study of the aftermath of the eruption. 

4. Mount
Hood And The Three Sisters

“Mount Hood
is located about 50 miles east-southeast of Portland. It is one of the loftiest
mountains in the nation, offering the only year-round lift-served skiing in North
America. Standing 11,240 feet high, it is the highest point in Oregon and the
fourth-highest in the Cascade Range. The volcano is considered the most likely
to erupt in Oregon. The odds of an eruption in the next 30 years are estimated
at between 3 and 7 percent, making it what scientists call “potentially
active.”

5. Mount
Shasta

Once we stayed overnight in the town of
Redding, California, which is quite near Mt. Shasta. “It is always such a beautiful presence whenever we pass
by, with and without the glaciations, going up to or down from Seattle. It is a
potentially active volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in northern
California with an elevation of 14,179 feet, second only to Mount Rainier in
height. But it is the biggest in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, with an estimated
volume of 85 cubic miles.”

6. Mount
Lassen

“Lassen Peak,
commonly referred to as Mount Lassen, is the southernmost active volcano in the
Cascade Range. It reaches an elevation of 10,457 feet. It is also different in
that it isn’t a stratovolcano like the others but a lava dome. In fact, it is
the largest lava dome in the world. On May 22, 1915, a powerful explosive
eruption devastated nearby areas and a series of eruptions (that actually
lasted from 1914 to 1917) spread volcanic debris 280 miles to the east. Lassen
Peak and Mount Saint Helens were the only two volcanoes in the contiguous
United States to erupt during the 20th century.” It was named the Lassen Volcanic National Park after the eruptions, preserving 100,000 acres for observation and study.  

These six
lovely volcanoes of the Cascades have always made our drives through the
Pacific Northwest such a pleasurable experience. Having stayed around some of
them, our Interstate 5 drives have always come to life more than other highways.

FOR THOSE ON MOBILE, SHARE BUTTONS APPEAR WHEN YOU CLICK WEB VERSION AT THE VERY END AFTER COMMENTS.

PREVIOUS POST