The Real Oregon

Just over the California border, south of the Oregon city of Klamath Falls, Lava Beds National Monument is a little known and fascinating part of the federal National Park system. Established in the 1920s, the monument contains an extensive system of lava beds resulting from an ancient shield volcano eruption. If that sounds like eighth-grade geology, take heart: the beds contain miles of lava tubes — long underground caverns — that the park service has minimally improved, making it safe and possible for amateur spelunkers to explore, equipped with little more than a good flashlight and a helmet of some kind. (Both are available at the visitor center.)

Wandering these lava tubes is a wild experience if you’ve never done any caving that didn’t involve a guide and a cavern with electric lights. Even though the tubes are pretty safe, and it’s difficult to get thoroughly lost, the first time you come to a fork in the pitch black, a quarter mile underground, you’ll feel your pulse start to beat a little faster. You can go for easy, stand-up walking tubes, or you can spend hundreds of meters duck-walking under a low ceiling. If you’re really determined you can crawl for long distances on your belly.

Lava Beds was also the scene of the tragic Modoc Indian war of 1872-73, in which Captain Jack and a band of renegade Modocs held off the U.S. Army for months by hiding out in the caves.

Old growth forest is kind of like pornography — no one can define it but all Oregonians know it when we see it.

The easy definitions you hear are pretty good but you don’t want to push them to the wall. “A forest that’s never been logged.” “Trees that haven’t been cut for 500 years.” “300 years.” “250 years.”

Problem is, of course, that none of the definitions quite captures what it is that makes old growth so spectacular and so essential. It’s not just that loggers haven’t driven through yet on their D-9s.

When Oregonians talk about “old growth” they’re almost always envisioning the rich rainforest of the western Cascades slopes, low enough in elevation for there to be real big Doug fir trees and high enough to be up off the valley floor.

But there’s more to old growth than just big trees. The handful of uncut patches in the Willamette National Forest, just east of Eugene, have a primeval, ancient quality to them. They remind some people of cathedrals.

The trees are not uniform. A good number of them have fallen down and begun rotting into the forest floor; you’ll find young healthy trees sprouting from the rotten carcasses of old dead trees — “nurse” trees, they’re called. This, of course, drives loggers crazy. They want to sell those old trees — not let them rot.

Old growth makes for great logging. Instead of cutting 20 or 30 or 50 small trees, you cut one giant. The wood is straight and clear because the big trees have few branches to create knots. Those big trees make a lot of money. Correction: They made a lot of money. Problem is, most of them are gone.

Logging aside, traditional old growth forest offers a rich and varied habitat for wildlife. It has multiple canopies in one forest; the holes left when big trees fall allow for lower deciduous trees to spring up. This creates a lot of biological opportunity for, lets saw, the Northern spotted owl, which prefers not to live anywhere else.

To take a look at a traditional Oregon old growth forest that doesn’t take much walking — it’s even wheelchair accessible — try Delta Old Growth Grove, a gorgeous patch of old growth near the McKenzie River less than an hour from Eugene. Head up the McKenzie Highway toward the mountains, turn right on Aufderheide Drive, which is past Blue River but before McKenzie Bridge. Delta Campground is on your right just past the bridge, perhaps a quarter mile from the highway. Drive into the campground, park at the free parking lot and walk. It’s an easy half-mile loop trail.

For a more extensive list try this book:

Best Old Growth Forest Hikes: Washington & Oregon Cascades (Best Hikes)