The Real Oregon

Just south of Crater Lake National Park, the little Sky Lakes Wilderness offers enough real estate for a week or longer back-country hike in the southern Oregon Cascades. Little visited by crowds, except for through hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail, the 35-mile-long wilderness area offers only grade-B scenery in its dozens of lakes (not too many alpine views) but plenty of peace and serenity for people willing to brave the considerable number of mosquitoes who live here.

The south end of the wilderness contains 9,600-foot Mount McLaughlin, an excellent but tough day hike. Farther north check out Ranger Springs, an extraordinary sight; the Rogue River literally pops out of the dry mountainside and creates a gorgeous green Eden.

Climbing 9,500-foot Mount McLoughlin is a great, if strenuous, summer day hike that takes you into truly wild and mountainous terrain. The trail, which starts off at a parking lot trailhead on the southern edge of Sky Lakes Wilderness, goes up about 4,000 feet in about four miles, which means you want to be in pretty darned good shape before you go. Some hands-and-feet scrambling is required as you go up the last ridge to the top, which is marked by the foundation of a former firewatch tower.

The Forest Service map of the wilderness advises care on the return trip to stay close to the east ridge of the mountain. They’re right; a rabbit warren of trails will tempt you down into a confusing mess of boulders and trees if you’re not careful.

At the top you can see from California to Washington on a clear day.