One of the joys in writing about Oregon’s outdoors is that you never run out of interesting places to visit.
There are so many rivers, mountains and campgrounds that even after 13 years of outdoor reportingI haven't seen half of the cool places this state has to offer.
At the same time, it’s also interesting seeing places in a new way — and that was a big theme for our outdoors section in 2019.
Whether hiking a trail transformed by wildfire, fishing a reservoir at extreme low water or paddling a flooded Salem park, this year was a good reminder that Oregon’s outdoors is dynamic, not static.
With that, I give you the 10 most interesting travel destinationsof the past year. It does include completely new spots, but it also highlights ways to experience places we know and love in a different way.
As ever, we're counting them down in reverse order.
See the online edition for links to the full stories and podcasts for each place listed here.
10: Treasure hunting in Oregon's beach and mountains
One of the more successful tourismcampaigns of the past few years has been officials hiding glass treasure on the Lincoln City beaches as a way to inspire people to get outdoors during the off-season.
In the last two years, the idea has expanded to the mountains and forest, with the Willamette Valley Visitors Association hiding 200glass Christmas treeornaments on hiking trails in Willamette National Forest.
Both ideas have worked. The idea that there is treasure hidden in the sand or forest has inspired a handful of trips with my two young children, and we've met a lot of other families doing the same.
It's a fun and new way to experience the outdoors and I hope both areas continue it in coming years.
Oregon outdoors more expensive in 2020:6 new permits, fee increases to hike, fish
9: Flooded forest at Minto-Brown Island Park
As the Willamette River rose to levels not seen since 2012, water flooded across Salem’s Minto-Brown Island Park.
Salem’s largest park was closed to hiking, biking and all the normal activities, but it offered the opportunity to paddlers to explore a unique flooded forest.
As the river hitborderline flood stage, around 25.5 feet, the tops of signs sprouted up through the muddy water, helping us navigate a network of pathways that had literally become water trails. A sign on the park’s main entry road reminded us to keep our paddling speed below 20 MPH.
Details:Kayakers explore flooded forest at Salem's Minto-Brown Island
This is the second time I've paddled Minto in the water. The first time, the Willamette was at about 18 feet.
8: Visiting the inside of Oregon's lighthouses
Over the last two years, Statesman Journal producer David Davis and I have visited every lighthouse in Oregon that you can visit.
We documented the trips and interviewed the tour guides for an episode of the Explore Oregon Podcast and a story that looks at the strengths and weaknesses of each lighthouse.
Listen:Explore Oregon Podcast: A guide to visiting and climbing Oregon's lighthouses
We decided our two favorites were Yaquina Head Lighthouse near Newport and Cape Blanco Lighthouse near Port Orford.
You can listen and subscribe to the Explore Oregon Podcast on your iPhone, Google Play or Stitcher. You can also find all 20 episodes we've recorded at:https://www.statesmanjournal.com/outdoors/explore/
Here's how:Visit and climb inside these 9 Oregon Coast lighthouses
7: Iron Mountain andHouse Rock hikes, camping
Two of Oregon'sbest hikes with kids are located along the South Santiam River east of Sweet Home.
House Rock Campground is a fun little spot with sites right next to beautifulswimming holeamid old-growth forest. It's also the trailhead for a fantastic 1 mile loop to a waterfall, cave and the aptly named House Rock — a site where pioneer families traveling the Santiam Wagon Trail used to take shelter from storms.
Details:House Rock Campground features idyllic swimming and hiking
Once you're finished at House Rock, drive just up U.S. Highway 20 to the upper trailhead for Iron Mountain, an iconic wildflower-filled climb to a summit where a wooden platform showcases Cascade Mountain views of Mount Jefferson and the Three Sisters.
The trip is a steep 2-mile round-trip, but doable for even fairly young kids.
Explore Oregon Podcast:House Rock Campground and Iron Mountain's stunning summit
6: Hunting for ferns in Oregon's forest
This year I was excited to learn about a program that allows you to transplant a number of ferns, plants and even tree seedlings from Oregon's national forests straight into your home garden.
The program, which iscarefully monitored and controlled by permits, allows the limited harvest of 30 to 40 different species of plants, as long as you get them from along the edges of U.S. Forest Service roads — where the soil has already been impacted.
(This program doesn't allow pulling plants from the middle of an old-growth forest).
I used the program to bring home a total of 19 sword ferns — many of them gigantic and that would have been very expensive to buy. I wrote a story detailing how to get the permit and the best way to make it happen in Siuslaw and Willamette national forests.
Sick of paying for plants, ferns and trees?In Oregon forests, they’re free with a permit
Listen for free:Bring home your own ferns from a national forest with free permit
5: Detroit Lake low water fishing
The troutfishing gets as hot as the surface of the sun when the weather gets cool at the famed reservoir east of Salem.
Detroit Lake typically has excellent trout fishing when the water level is dropped to make room for flood controlon the North Santiam River.
But this year it's an even more interesting situation.
Because of repairs on spillway gates, the reservoir has been dropped to near historically low levels — so low that even the low-water boat ramp is dry.
The fishing is still amazing, though, as I discovered with Western Oregon University professor Henry Hughes. We had to carry a rowboat a few hundred feet through the mud and stumps, but we eventually got fishing on the lake and caught around 40 fish, keeping our limits of five each.
In a lot of ways, Detroit Lake is more interesting at low water.
Details:Fishing is red-hot in Detroit Lake's extreme low water pool. Here's how to make it happen
4: Jefferson Park via burned-to-a-crisp Whitewater Trail
The famed Whitewater Trail finally reopened this summer two years after becoming the epicenter of a major wildfire that burned over 11,000 acres in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness.
A lot has changed, to the point that the pathway located east of Detroitalmost feels like a different place.
Details on wildfire:Did the Forest Service ignore the Whitewater Fire and allow it to burn out of control?
Where it was once a green tunnel with just a few views of Oregon's second-tallest mountain, the pathway is now a moonscape of burned forest in many places with a ton of views showcasing Mount Jefferson.
The Whitewater Trail is largely known for being the quickest route to Jefferson Park, the alpine paradise of lakes and meadows, which did not burn in the fire.
Full story:Mount Jefferson’s iconic trail, now reopened, transformed by wildfire
3: Float through redwoods on crystal-clear Smith River
Maybe you've already visited the titanic trees of the Redwood National and State Parks system, located just across the Oregon and California border.
But chances are good you've never floated through them on one of the world's clearest rivers.
The "redwood float" throughJedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is a wonderful experience, a chance to admire the tall trees from the river while gazing at water as clear as liquid glass.
The float is either3.5 miles or 7 miles, depending on where you take out, through pretty mellow water without any major rapids.
You can bring your own boat, rent one locally or take a commercialtrip down the river. I outlined all the details of the float in this story.
Outdoors:Float through giant trees in Redwood National Park on a crystal-clearriver
2: Explore emerald pools of Oregonvia ‘wilderness snorkeling’
As amazing as streamssuch as the Little North Santiamand Elk Lake Creek are from the surface, it's nothing compared to how they look underwater.
This year I continued to enjoy what I'll call "wilderness snorkeling," which means hiking into the backcountry with a snorkel and fins to explore the amazingly clear rivers and creeks from below the surface.
This year I snorkeledElk Lake Creek, Waldo Lake and the Collawash andSouth Santiam rivers. Each offered a differentexperience, but it was always fun and has become a mandatory piece of gear to bring on almost every outdoor trip.
How to do it:Explore the emerald pools Oregon's Elk Lake Creek via ‘wilderness snorkeling’
1: Waldo Lake boat-in camping
It’s not easy to find the hidden campsites of Waldo Lake.
No maps mark their site, and no signs betray their location.
Even the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the lake, is coy about the best places to find them.
But if you load up your boat with gear and paddle onto one of the world's clearest lakes, you'll find around 50 dispersed campsites that offer some of the best camping in Oregon.
Listen:Explore Oregon Podcast: Paddling to hidden campsites of Waldo Lake
Last autumn I headed onto Waldo Lake for some boat-in campingwhile exploring almost the entire shoreline.
It's a process that requires a little more study than you might expect. How to avoid the mosquitoes and high winds, find the best beaches and campsitesare all important questions because it's a big lake with a lot happening.
But done right, it's one of Oregon's best outdoor adventures.
Read:Find hidden boat-in campsites at Waldo Lake with a canoe or kayak
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter, photographer and videographer in Oregon for 11 years.To support his work,subscribe to the Statesman Journal.Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
