Mount Hood Railroad through orchards
— — a slow train through pear blossoms.
Not only on a wall.
“The Mount Hood Railroad runs the old freight line south from Hood River to Parkdale, climbing the valley a few hundred feet at a time. The fruit grew here first: pears, apples, cherries, the orchards that gave the railroad its reason in 1906. From the open car the mountain shows itself in pieces between rows. People on board mostly stop talking. The conductor names a town, the rail clicks under the wheel, and the orchard turns slowly past the window. from the studio
Mount Hood Railroad through orchards, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Mount Hood Railroad was chartered in 1906 to carry timber and fruit between Hood River, on the Columbia, and Parkdale, twenty-two miles to the south at the foot of Mount Hood. The line climbs roughly 1,100 feet through the Hood River Valley, crossing one of the few remaining commercial switchbacks in the United States near Mosier Junction. After freight use ended the route was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 and now runs as a heritage excursion through the valley orchards.
The valley keeps a calendar the railroad runs against. Pear and apple blossom whiten the orchards in late April, the Hood River Valley Blossom Festival anchored to that week. By August the d'Anjou and Bartlett pears are sized and the cherry harvest is in, the freight tradition the line was built to serve. October brings the Fruit Loop colour, a 35-mile orchard drive that loops through Parkdale, and the train carries leaf-watchers under a fully white Mount Hood. The Hood River Valley grows roughly a third of Oregon's pear crop.
Excursion service runs from the historic 1911 Hood River depot at the foot of State Street, a block from the Columbia. The full round trip to Parkdale and back is about four hours, with shorter Mosier and Odell trips offered through the season. Themed runs (Western train robbery, Polar Express, brunch and dinner cars) sell out for blossom and harvest weekends well in advance. The depot sits a short walk from downtown Hood River, where Full Sail Brewing and the waterfront windsurfing beach are within ten minutes on foot.