On October 18, 1805, Clark sighted Mount Hood, part of what is now called the Cascade Mountain Range, in present-day Oregon. Discovered and named in 1792 by William Broughton, a member of a British exploring expedition, this landmark was one of the few already on the expedition's map and showed the explorers that they were approaching the Pacific coast.
On November 3, Clark gave more detail of the mountain, writing:
"The Fog so thick this morning that we could not see a man 50 Steps off. . . . A Mountain which we Suppose to be Mt. Hood, is 85° E about 47 miles distant. This Mtn. is covered with Sno and in the range of mountains which we have passed through and is of a conical form but [rugged]."
Rising 11,239 feet (3,426 meters) high, Mount Hood is the highest peak in Oregon. At the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the mountain, an active volcano, was at the end of a period of activity now known as the "Old Maid" eruptions, which lasted from 1760-1810 A.D. The journal entries note that the Sandy River, which today is deep and narrow, was at the time shallow, and choked with rocks and debris left from the volcanic eruptions (although the expedition members were unaware that the eruptions were the cause). 
