The summit of Mount McLoughlin
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Thinking about the summer hiking season soon to be upon us…. This was last August.
Cascades on The Real Oregon
The Oregon Cascades are not like some other western mountain ranges. Frankly, if you’ve grown up on the Sierra or the Rockies, you may find them a little thin in places — a handful of 10,000-foot volcanic peaks jutting up out of heavily forested 5,000-foot hills. In many places the hiking is severely overcrowded; the Three Sisters Wilderness will remind you of Yosemite some days, and climbing South Sister can mean navigating a steady stream of hikers on the way up and back.
That said, the Cascades have their charm. Crater Lake is truly spectacular. Near Portland, Timberline Lodge captures a moment in Oregon — and American — cultural history, with its WPA aura.
Here are more entries about the Cascades:
Ranger Springs
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Out in the dry and dusty middle of nowhere in the Sky Lakes Wilderness of southern Oregon, a trail that’s not even marked on the wilderness map leads about a half mile to Ranger Springs. Take that trail.
The spring is the biggest gusher you’ll ever see. Basically the Rogue River flows out of the ground all at once, creating an Edenic green garden a couple hundred meters across.
