Cooper Spur
From Portland Hikers Field Guide
- Hikes to this destination:
- Cooper Spur Hike (TH | <-- --> | LOG)
- Latitude: 45.38067
- Longitude: -121.67181
- Maps: Portland Hikers Maps Google Earth
- Elevation: 8514 feet
Contents |
Description
Cooper Spur is the highest point reached by formal trail on Mount Hood. From the rocky summit, there are stunning views of Mount Hood's north face, the massive ice falls of the Eliot Glacier to the north, and views across the smooth ice of the Newton Clark Glacier to the south. Oregon's high desert country spreads out to the east, and the orchards of the Hood River Valley spread out to the northeast.
The large boulder perched on the narrow saddle between Cooper Spur and Mount Hood is Tie-In-Rock, the traditional spot where climbers rope up before continuing toward the summit. The Cooper Spur route to the summit was once the most popular approach, in the days when the Cloud Cap Inn was the main tourist destination on the mountain. Today, it continues to be a popular climbing route for intermediate climbers.
Other highlights at Cooper Spur include several stone windbreaks used for nearly a century by climbers and the etched signature in a small boulder left by a Japanese climbing party in the early 1900s. If you wait long enough on the crest, you might also be lucky enough to hear to hear the surreal crack and roar of the Eliot Glacier creaking down the mountain.
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Guidebooks that cover this destination
- Hiking Oregon's Geology, by Ellen Morris Bishop
- 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Portland, by Paul Gerald
More Links
Page Contributors
- Splintercat (Tom Kloster) (primary)