A Summary of Oregon’s County High Points

Have you ever wondered how many county high points there are in each state? Delaware has the fewest, with only 3 counties to consider. Texas has a whopping 254 county high points! And Louisiana technically has zero – but only because the state doesn’t have counties, it has 64 parishes instead.

When it comes to county highpointing, Oregon is an outlier in some regards. The state is divided into 36 distinct counties, but only has 32 county high points (or CoHPs). How can this be true, you might wonder. It’s because four of these summits serve as the highest natural point in two adjacent counties.

What’s more, four of Oregon’s counties also have unnamed high points. And several of Oregon’s county high points don’t have USGS survey benchmarks, leaving visitors to traipse around any noticeable elevation rises within the CoHP’s general vicinity just to be sure they tagged the summit.

REGION BY REGION

Getting to the summit of all 32 CoHPs in Oregon will require a bit of determination, some mountaineering skills (or willingness to hire a guide), and lots of driving on remote forest roads. Nonetheless, I think I’m up for the challenge, and I’ve broken the state down into four roughly equal geographic regions:

• Coastal Northwest – This region contains eight county high points generally located state’s northwest corner. All of these peaks are are within the Oregon Coast Range and they all sit below 4,500 feet. These are some of the lowest county high points in the state, but many of them include challenging access with long car rides down muddy logging roads or on private property.

• Cascades – This region has nine county high points, but it contains the fewest number of peaks to climb as several of the summits bisect county lines. All of the mountains in this region are within the Cascade Mountain range and they include the state’s three tallest peaks (Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and South Sister). Summiting some of these high points requires technical climbing skills, and all of them require a high level of fitness.

• Southern Oregon – This region contains nine county high points, all of which sit in the southern half of the state. This region is the most geographically diverse one – with high points ranging from the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Idaho border. Oregon’s southernmost counties have high points in the Oregon Coast Range, Klamath Mountains, Cascade Mountains, and Northwest Great Basin Ranges and can reach as high as 9,733 feet above sea level.

• Eastern Oregon – This region contains the ten county high points located in the northeastern portion of the state. Some of the high points are distinct and noteworthy mountain peaks stretching as high as nearly 10,000 feet high, while others are unnamed points on private land as low as 3,000 feet. Eastern Oregon’s high points are located in the Wallowas, Ochoco Mountains, Blue Mountains, and along the South Columbia Plateau.

List of Oregon’s County High Points

If you are interested in a complete list of Oregon’s CoHPs, scroll through the table below, which includes the all 36 counties, their high point’s name, which mountain range the peak is located in, and the region of Oregon I’ve placed it in. At the very end of this list, I’ve also included a bit of fun trivia about these PNW high points.

County	High Point	Mountain Range	Region
Baker	Red Mountain	Wallowa Mountains	3
Benton	Mary’s Peak	Oregon Coast Range	1
Clackamas	Mt. Hood	Cascade Mountains	2
Clatsop	Saddle Mountain	Oregon Coast Range	1
Columbia	Long Mountain	Oregon Coast Range	1
Coos	Mt. Bolivar	Oregon Coast Range	4
Crook	Lookout Mountain	Ochoco Mountains	3
Curry	Brandy Peak	Oregon Coast Range	4
Deschutes	South Sister	Cascade Mountains	2
Douglas	Mt. Thielsen	Cascade Mountains	4
Gilliam	Gilliam Co. High Point	Blue Mountains	3
Grant	Strawberry Mountain	Strawberry Mountains	3
Harney	Steens Mountain	NW Great Basin Ranges	4
Hood River	Mt. Hood	Cascade Mountains	2
Jackson	Mt. McLoughlin	Cascade Mountains	4
Jefferson	Mt. Jefferson	Cascade Mountains	2
Josephine	Grayback Mountain	Klamath Mountains	4
Klamath	Mt. Thielsen	Cascade Mountains	4
Lake	Crane Mountain	NW Great Basin Ranges	4
Lane	South Sister	Cascade Mountains	2
Lincoln	Lincoln Co. High Point	Oregon Coast Range	1
Linn	Mt. Jefferson	Cascade Mountains	2
Malheur	Stevenson Benchmark	Oregon Canyonlands Mountains	4
Marion	Mt. Jefferson (N. Ridge)	Cascade Mountains	2
Morrow	Black Mountain	Blue Mountains	3
Multnomah	Buck Peak	Cascade Mountains	2
Polk	Laurel Mountain	Oregon Coast Range	1
Sherman	Sherman Co. High Point	S. Columbia Plateau	3
Tillamook	Rogers Peak	Oregon Coast Range	1
Umatilla	Tower Mountain	Blue Mountains	3
Union	Eagle Cap	Wallowa Mountains	4
Wallowa	Sacajawea Peak	Wallowa Mountains	4
Wasco	Olallie Butte (NE Slope)	Cascade Mountains	2
Washington	South Saddle Mountain	Oregon Coast Range	1
Wheeler	Spanish Peak	Ochoco Mountains	3
Yamhill	Trask Mountain	Oregon Coast Range	1

Fun TRIVIA FROM Oregon’s County HIGH POINTS

• Peaks above 8,000′ elevation: 12
• Peaks below 4,000′ elevation: 8
• Oregon’s lowest point: Pacific Ocean (sea level)
• Oregon’s highest point: Mt. Hood (11,249′)
• High points that bisect multiple counties in Oregon: 4
• The names of those shared HPs: Mt. Hood, South Sister, Mt. Thielsen, Mt. Jefferson
• Number of counties where part of Mt. Jefferson is the shared HP: 3
• Counties where a mountain’s slope, rather than summit is the HP: 2 (Marion & Wasco)
• Counties with an unnamed HPs: 4 (Gilliam, Lincoln, Malheur, Sherman)
• High points located in the Cascade Mountain Range: 9
• Number located in the Oregon Coast Range: 9
• Number located in the Wallowas: 3
• Number in the Blue Mountains : 3
• Number in the Northwest Great Basin Ranges: 3
• Other terrain featuring county HPs: Klamath Mountains, Ochoco Mountains, Strawberry Mountains, and the South Columbia Plateau