Umpqua National Forest

Umpqua National Forest sprawls across close to a million acres of the western Cascade slopes in southwest Oregon, a country of deep old-growth canyons, mossy Douglas-fir, and the wild North Umpqua River. Its signature run is Highway 138 -- the 'Highway of Waterfalls' -- which threads past Toketee, Watson, and Lemolo falls on its way up to Diamond Lake, set between the spire of Mount Thielsen and rounded Mount Bailey. Cool twist: the North Umpqua holds one of the West's most storied wild summer-steelhead runs, with a long fly-fishing-only stretch that Zane Grey helped make famous back in the 1930s.

The place

Umpqua National Forest covers close to a million acres of the western Cascade Range in southwest Oregon, climbing from mossy, fern-choked old-growth canyons up to volcanic peaks on the crest. It takes its name from the Umpqua River and the Umpqua people, and the river is the heart of the place -- the North Umpqua carves through the middle of the forest, a green, boulder-strewn run famous for both its waterfalls and its wild steelhead. This is classic Pacific Northwest rainforest country: towering Douglas-fir, western hemlock and red cedar, hidden hot springs, and one of Oregon's prettiest mountain drives strung with cascades. Higher up it opens onto Diamond Lake and the peaks of the Cascade crest, with Crater Lake just over the divide to the south.

History

The forest was carved out of the old Cascade Range Forest Reserve (set aside in the 1890s) and took shape as Umpqua National Forest around 1907-08, in the first burst of national forests created under Theodore Roosevelt and the young Forest Service. Long before that, this was the homeland of the Umpqua people, who gave the river and the forest their name. Much of the 20th century here was a logging story -- the western Cascades held some of the richest Douglas-fir timber in the country, and the mills ran hard through the mid-1900s. That era ran headlong into the northern spotted owl and the fight over old-growth forests, and since the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan the emphasis has shifted toward protecting the older stands and the salmon and steelhead runs that depend on clean, cold water.

Wildlife & plants

This is Roosevelt elk and black-tailed deer country, with black bears in the berry brush and cougars you will almost never see. The old-growth stands are habitat for the northern spotted owl, the bird at the center of the Northwest timber wars, along with pileated woodpeckers and, over the rivers, osprey and bald eagles. But the real headliners here swim: the North Umpqua carries wild summer and winter steelhead plus chinook and coho salmon, and the streams hold rainbow and cutthroat trout. The forest itself is a cathedral of towering Douglas-fir, western hemlock, western red cedar, and sugar pine down low, giving way to mountain hemlock and true firs as you climb toward the crest.

Notable features

The star is the North Umpqua River and its string of waterfalls along Highway 138, the 'Highway of Waterfalls' -- Toketee Falls dropping in two tiers past a wall of columnar basalt, Watson Falls plunging around 270-300 feet as one of the tallest in the state, and Lemolo Falls higher up. Umpqua Hot Springs steams on a bluff above the river (a short walk in, often crowded, clothing-optional -- check current rules before you go). Up top sits Diamond Lake, a big, popular rainbow-trout lake cradled between the jagged spire of Mount Thielsen -- nicknamed the 'Lightning Rod of the Cascades' for its storm-scarred summit -- and the broad dome of Mount Bailey. The forest also holds three wilderness areas: Boulder Creek, and the shared Rogue-Umpqua Divide and Mount Thielsen wildernesses.

Cool to know

• The North Umpqua is one of the most storied summer-steelhead rivers in the West. A long stretch through the river's heart is restricted to fly-fishing only, and it is famous for big native summer steelhead in the water around Steamboat -- wild fish are protected and released, though hatchery fish have been part of the modern program too, so always check current ODFW rules before you fish.
• Western novelist Zane Grey -- the man whose cowboy books practically invented the pulp Western -- pitched a summer camp on the North Umpqua in the 1930s and helped put its steelhead fishing on the map.
• Highway 138 up the North Umpqua is nicknamed the 'Highway of Waterfalls' because so many cascades hang within a short walk of the road -- Toketee, with its picture-perfect drop over columnar basalt, is one of the most photographed waterfalls in Oregon.
• Mount Thielsen, on the forest's eastern edge, is called the 'Lightning Rod of the Cascades.' Its needle-sharp summit gets hit by lightning so often that patches of rock at the very tip have been melted into glassy fulgurite -- literally lightning-made glass.
• Diamond Lake, the forest's big recreation hub, had such a runaway problem with invasive tui chub that managers treated the whole lake with rotenone in 2006 and restocked it to rebuild the rainbow-trout fishery -- a multi-million-dollar lake restoration.
• Crater Lake -- the deepest lake in the United States -- sits just over the divide to the south, so a lot of campers use the Umpqua's high country as a quieter, free-camping back door for day trips into the national park.