TRAVELING IN STYLE : EXCELLENT ADVENTURES : High Times at Timberline : Oregon’s historic Timberline Lodge delivers old-fashioned charm, delicious food, a stunning setting and Cascade snow for skiing all year long.

THE AIR WAS SO CLEAR AT 6,000 FEET, THAT LOOKING ACROSS a chasm at the far cliff side, we could make out individual grains of earth, layers of century-old volcanic ash and sharp-edged pink-and-white petals of tiny flowers clinging flat to gray rocks. Mounds of snow lay in the blue shadows of low bushes. Above us on the snow-bright peak, skiers clattered and yelled, streaking down the white trail between jumbles of volcanic rock.

There were no trees. We were above them. The sky burned that intense high-altitude blue that washes pink at the edges of your eyes. Far below, a group in shorts crossed the parking lot carrying coils of shock cord and metal fittings for rock climbings. Another group arrived bundled up and wet from white-water rafting. It was August.

We were on Mt. Hood, at 11,235 feet the highest spot in Oregon. Mt. Hood is what’s left of an old volcano that blew its top third off several hundred years ago. Its last big eruption was in 1865, although it still vents steam occasionally. It is a particularly beautiful mountain, surrounded by forests and parks and hundreds of miles of wild and stunning country--gray columns of basalt, roaring waterfalls and serene blue lakes, snowdrifts and lush meadows. It is also the site of Timberline Lodge, one of the most attractive, comfortable and well-situated hotels in the Pacific Northwest.

Owned by the U.S. Forest Service but operated by an independent concessionaire, Timberline Lodge is a historic landmark built as a New Deal works project and dedicated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937. Architecturally, it’s dazzling--a massive but graceful stone-and-timber building in the international ski-chalet style. Its shingled roofs drop like diving eagles. Its spine is an immense hexagonal chimney of huge stone blocks. If it looks vaguely familiar from the outside, especially when the trees are cloaked with thick snow, it’s because exteriors for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film, “The Shining,” were shot here--though in real life it’s about as unthreatening a place as could be imagined.

In the lodge, the stairway newel posts are thick logs carved into the shapes of owls and other animals. Beam ends protrude as rams’ heads. Iron fittings on doors and stair rails are huge hand-worked black rectangles and rings. The lobby fireplace is a cavernous alcove at the base of this chimney, and flying above the lobby are timbered galleries and rafters evoking a strong sense of natural elements--stone, wood and air. As a historical display in the lodge lobby shows, most of the remarkable interior was created by local workers and volunteers from the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps, who were taught such skills as blacksmithing and wood carving especially for the project.

Some of the guest rooms at the lodge have fireplaces, and in cool weather, the staff lays a new fire daily when they make up those rooms. All the rooms are decorated with regional art--watercolors of flowers and WPA-style landscapes with straight brush strokes and sober colors; the windows have hand-woven drapes based on the original patterns used by local artisans half a century ago. The plumbing and heating systems, on the other hand, are modern; the lodge is refurbished and updated on an almost continual basis.

Timberline Lodge is not exclusively a ski resort--virtually every other mountain sport, winter and summer, is available in the vicinity. The lodge also makes a perfect hideaway, quiet and comfortable, for do-nothing vacationers--but the fact is that it’s actually possible to ski almost all year on the neighboring slopes. The first fresh snowfall of the season is usually in November or December (though a few years ago, there were flurries on the 4th of July), and once the snow starts coming, there’s a lot of it--sometimes 20 feet or more of it at a time so that even the markers by the side of the road are buried. “It’s Cascade snow,” says Timberline assistant general manager Gary Hohnstein. “It’s not as light as powder, but you’re up so high it’s not sloppy, either. And because it’s sort of wet, we take especially good care of it. The grooming is excellent.”

The ski runs are breathtaking: long pipes that you can tear down, mild children’s and beginners’ slopes and patrolled but quiet intermediate trails zigzagging through the trees. The 31 ski runs and the chair lifts--five in winter, 2 in summer--are mostly concealed by terrain or trees, so the skier can retain a sense of solitude against the mountain.

In early summer, skiers take to the glaciers, still deep with snow. By riding two lifts, they can enjoy a run of nearly two miles and 2,500 vertical feet, from the top of the Palmer chair to the level of the lodge. (Timberline claims to offer the only lift-service summer skiing in the United States.)

In August, when my wife and I went hiking near the lodge along trails through rock and scrub, we clambered over snowdrifts in shadowed gullies and sauntered along snow-melt creeks; we could see hundreds of skiers in the distance.

And at night we feasted. Lingering over dishes such as wild mushrooms with garlic and herbs in phyllo dough, salmon cured with Oregon vine maple and pork tenderloin in a mountain-berry demi-glace , we’d gaze out the huge southwest-facing window at the copper sun going behind the dark mountains, the light in the thin air making pure shafts of gold, magenta and mauve on the clouds and on the other snow-topped mountains below us, lighting them like Tiepolo ceilings. After dinner we’d stroll on the maze of trails above the lodge, looking up at the millions of stars and the ski-run lights on the peak--a bright, broad lane where skiers raced down like dark ovals, to the accompaniment of the headlights and noise of a Sno-Cat plowing uphill to keep the snow loose. We’d take a swim at midnight, watching the mountain’s blue-white presence hover over us from the warmth of the pool--and then run inside, chilled, to sit before a fire of dry resinous wood, tan, with a twisted grain, that burst into yellow flame puffing out scents of sweet pitch and biting smoke.

One morning, we drove north to the Columbia River Gorge, which forms much of the border between Oregon and Washington and, at this point, has steep walls hundreds of feet high that channel the wind like Chicago skyscrapers. On the quieter parts of the river, near towns, windsurfers skidded along, boards heeled over, knifing up ribbons of white spray. We crossed over into Washington near Horsethief State Park and explored the hills in the country to the east. Here, near the town of Husum, we found a beautiful little winery, the Charles Hooper Family Winery. Two retired teachers started it, making wine from Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes they grew themselves and drinking what they made. Others liked their wine--it was easy to see why as we tasted it--so they began selling it commercially. The Hoopers welcome visitors and offer tastings.

On another morning, we set off on a more ambitious expedition, driving east into the Oregon desert--high, rocky, colored in dull pastels. My wife, who grew up in the area, remembered having gone to science camp here as a kid, digging up fossils and crystals. Today, rock-climbing sites are all around--sheer basalt faces where men and women in shorts and canvas-and-black-rubber shoes clamber and shift from one tiny hold to another.

It’s a curiosity of the Northwest that you go east to go, as it were, “West.” The coast has fishermen, and neat little towns that resemble their predecessors in New England or the Plains States. But here, inland, the landscape is composed of reddish-tan soil and dry grass punctuated with dark green juniper, pine and oak. Cattle roam. There are dry ranges and cowboys.

And Indians. The Indians of this region were traders who lived well. One elder told me that his tribe had once traded north all the way to Siberia and east to the Rockies. It was all luxury goods: furs and bitterroot, which they ate like pasta. Two of the local trading tribes, the Wascos and Teninos (also called Walla Wallas), were put on a dry, rocky reservation in Oregon, now called Warm Springs, before the Civil War. Stuck in with them were Paiutes, a tribe the Teninos had at times fought. The Indians went through many hardships but found ways to work together, preserve their spiritual heritage and make a living by logging and by turning the mineral springs on their land into a spa. Called Kah-Nee-Ta Hot Springs today, it’s about an hour’s drive southeast of Timberline, close enough to white-water rafting and rock-climbing sites for a hot soak and a massage to work out post-exertion kinks.

About the only trip away from the Timberline Lodge that we didn’t particularly enjoy was our last one, on the day we left, as we headed northwest to Portland to catch a plane back home. We looked back often as we drove, though, stealing last glimpses of that massive stone steeple with the snow-covered peak behind it, and promised ourselves that we’d be back.

GUIDEBOOK: TIMBERLINE

Getting there: United Airlines, Alaska and Delta airlines all have daily nonstop flights to Portland from LAX. Alaska also flies nonstop daily from Ontario, Burbank and Orange County. United has one daily nonstop from San Diego. There is bus service from Portland airport to the Timberline Lodge via the Mt. Hood Express, (503) 622-5554. Several Portland firms rent four-wheel-drive vehicles, handy in the winter snows; among them are Alex Chrysler/Plymouth, (800) 962-9136, and U-Save Auto Rental, (503) 660-0804.

Timberline Lodge: On the slopes of Mt. Hood in northwestern Oregon, the lodge is located off Oregon 26, approximately 60 miles southeast of Portland. Room rates range from $52 per night per person for simple accommodations with bunk beds and bathrooms across the hall to $140 a night for two for Fireplace or Friends of Timberline rooms, decorated in WPA style. Telephone (800) 547-1406 for reservations. The hotel number is (503) 272-3311, and snow reports are available from (503) 222-2211.

Charles Hooper Family Winery: Located nine miles north of White Salmon, Wash., on Washington 141, it welcomes visitors daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Telephone (509) 493-2324.

Kah-Nee-Ta Hot Springs: Located on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, about 50 miles southeast of the Timberline Lodge. Telephone (800) 831-0100 for operating hours and other information.