Counterpoint

Day 5: Panorama Point is aptly named. On a clear day, you can see three major mountains and possibly catch a glimpse of a fourth if you walk around until you hit the right spot. Most distant and hardest to see is Jefferson in Oregon. Hood is more obvious. Washington's Mount Adams has a similar profile to Mount Rainier and dominates the skyline to the southeast, and of course the great crater of Mt. St. Helens is the most significant feature to the southwest. That said, the nearest horizon is built from a chain of lesser peaks known as the Tatoosh Range. For their part, the Tatooshes draw the line for the sawtoothed southern boundary of the Park from Longmire eastward: Eagle, Chutla, Wahpenayo, Lane, Plummer, Pinnacle, Castle, Unicorn, Boundary and Stevens. Of the Tatoosh Peaks, Unicorn is the highest at 6817'. You might think you were at an elevation below its summit, but in fact at Panorama Point, you are 300' higher.

On Tuesday, I could see Adams and Hood in the distance, although St. Helens was lost in cloud. Lenticular clouds were forming near Adams and one, dark and foreboding, seemed to have been snagged by Unicorn's black horn. In truth, it was well to the south, following the white one already trapped in Mt. Adams' grasp. The counterpoint of light and dark captured my eye despite its visual fiction.