Overshadowed by nearby Mount Rainier and Mount Hood, Washington State’s Mount Adams is sometimes referred to as Washington’s Forgotten Giant, might be the most underrated mountain in the United States. While Mount Adams might not get the same recognition as its neighboring peaks, its is Washington’s second tallest mountain and deserves a bit more attention than it gets.
Why Mount Adams Matters:
Located in Washington’s Cascade Range, Mount Adams is colossal stratovolcano soaring to 12,281 feet, the state’s second-highest peak after Rainier, yet perpetually overshadowed by its flashier neighbors like the eruption famous St. Helens or the tourist magnet Rainier.
Mount Adams boasts a staggering 70 cubic miles of volume (18-mile wide diameter) making it Washington’s largest stratovolcano and the second-biggest in the Cascades behind Shasta. It last rumbled around 3,500 years ago leaving behind potential hazards like lahars and pyroclastic flows, but there has been a recent uptick in seismic activity in 2024.
Indigenous peoples, including the Yakama and Cowlitz, revered it as Pahto weaving legends of its creation into their lore long before European explorers glimpsed it in the mid-19th century. A cartographic mixup in 1853 named it after President John Adams, and its first recorded ascent came in 1854 by A.G. Aiken’s party via the North Cleaver, with trickier east and west face climbs conquered in the 1920s.
Sporting 12 glaciers spanning 9.3 square miles, a curiously flat summit with a false peak called Pikers Peak, and a quirky modern history like a 1920s fire lookout that was the world’s third-highest before abandonment and a Cheese Cave where bleu cheese was aged in the 1950s, Adams offers uncrowded recreation and unique mountain experience that deserves more appreciation.
