Oregon and Washington are endowed with an abundance of public lands for outdoor recreation, especially its 17 units of the national forest system.
Managed from its Portland headquarters, Region 6 of the U.S. Forest Service has everything from the tide pools at Cape Perpetua on the central Oregon coast to the glaciers on Mount Hood and Mount Baker. And regional national forest lands plunge to the depths of the Snake River on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon.
With all this largesse, which is forest unit best? A series of polls on OregonLive.com during December will attempt to determine which forest readers love the most for outdoor recreation. Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge are near and dear to a Portland audience, but those are no shoo ins when going head-to-head with the likes of the Deschutes, Okanogan-Wenatcee or the Sisuslaw national forests.
To vote in the polls and follow the progress, tune into OregonLive.com/Travel, where it will be easy to find something about the region's national forests every day from now through December. First-round voting lasts until 6 p.m. four days after a third call for votes.
Beginning in January, 2016 will be the centennial celebration of the National Park System. The Pacific Northwest has some great national parks, but it's the U.S. Department of Agriculture's national forests that have so much land for local citizens to enjoy, much of it for free.
So before we get ready to celebrate the national parks next year, lets enjoy all that we have in our national forests. This polling is in a 16-unit bracket, with winners moving to a round of eight, then semifinals and then a final near the end of December. You can vote once in each of the head-to-head polls.
We begin with a bit about all the national forests in Oregon and Washington, and start the first poll: the Mount Hood National Forest vs. the Olympic National Forest. The votes between other national forests goes from there. Vote and have fun with it!
Feel free to add the best of your experiences in each of the forests in the comment section.
Mount Hood vs. Olympic
Mount Hood: This national forest takes its name for its main attraction, Mount Hood, indeed one of the signature icons of Oregon. Who doesn't love seeing that pointy pinnacle from your downtown Portland office building, or during the drive home from Bend, or from far out on the grasslands of Gilliam County?
But the Mount Hood National Forest is more than a 11,239-foot mountain, highest in the state, with its iconic Timberline Lodge. It also has the Clackamas River, a handy camping zone for 2 million Oregonians all the way up to Timothy Lake. The 1,674-square mile forest has dependable skiing, even when winter snows are stingy, Congressionally designated wilderness areas for getting away from it all and some of the region's most scenic high mountain trails.
Headquartered in Sandy, the Mount Hood National Forest is the most urban-like in Oregon because of its closeness to Portland, but it's still wild enough to have a small population of the rare Sierra Nevada red fox; fs.usda.gov/mthood/.
Olympic: Washington's Olympic National Forest lost its crown jewels in 1938 when the center of the Olympic Peninsula became Olympic National Park, but the forest sill has plenty of attractions around the periphery of the Olympic Mountain Range.
Chief among them is Lake Quinault Lodge, constructed in the 1920s to offer a national park experience similar to a lodge it was modeled after, Old Faithful Lodge in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park. The Washington lodge is privately owned and managed, but it nestles among the big trees in the national forest's Quinault Rain Forest, on the southwest side of the Olympic Peninsula and as easy a drive from Portland as from any large city.
Same goes for the national forest's southeast corner, where the Skokomish and Hamma Hamma valleys lead up to a cluster of challenging mountains for climbing, the closest such peak cluster to Portland. The 981-square mile forest is headquartered in Olympia; fs.usda.gov/olympic/.
Ochoco vs. Gifford Pinchot
Ochoco: This national forest based in Prineville also includes the Crooked River National Grassland in the central Oregon triangle between Madras, Redmond and Prineville. If you like the scenery in Smith Rock State Park, you'll find something similar in the grassland, though less of it but also much less crowded. Gray Butte is the focal point.
The bulk of the 1,330-square mile Ochoco National Forest covers the Ochoco Mountains, a western outlier of the broader Blue Mountain Range to the east. The range high point is Lookout Mountain, at 6,926 feet, not high enough for downhill ski lifts, but down below along U.S. 26 there are several winter play spots loved by locals for sledding, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing.
The Ochocos have increasingly become a destination for residents of central Oregon to play without contending with the crowds of the Deschutes National Forest; fs.usda.gov/ochoco.
Gifford Pinchot: This Vancouver-based national forest in southwest Washington has two of the state's southern icons, Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams, plus other gems that include Indian Heaven and Silver Star Mountain. Those are all relatively easy to reach from the south, but the 2,065-square mile forest reaches so far north that it abuts Mount Rainier National Park and includes the west half of the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area.
Mount St. Helens is still known around the world for its relatively recent eruption in 1980, but remains a day-use area with camping and lodging some distance away.
Mount Adams, second highest in Washington at 12,276 feet, is shared by the forest with Yakama tribal lands on its east side. Those lands were burned this past summer by the Cougar Creek wildfire. Mount Adams will continue to be known for its meadows of wildflowers at treeline and for being the easiest big mountain the the Northwest for climbers to dull their crampons on; fs.usda.gov/giffordpinchot/.
Deschutes vs. Okanogan-Wenatchee
Deschutes: With the Three Sisters Wilderness, the Cascade Lakes Highway and Newberry National Volcanic Monument, the Deschutes National Forest of central Oregon has some of America's best public lands. It also has Mt. Bachelor Resort, the busiest ski area in Oregon or Washington, and the East Fort Rock off-highway vehicle system east of Bend.
The forest's headquarters is in Bend, biggest city on the east side of Oregon's Cascades and gateway to the Deschutes National Forest, with its fabulous Phil's Trail mountain bike system close enough to bump against the west side of town. With its active outdoor community, Bend keeps the Deschutes forest busy, as do 4 million annual visitors to the area.
Portlanders, though, have learned they can use Sisters as a hopping off point into the forest to easily reach the wonders of the Mount Jefferson, Mount Washington and Three Sisters wilderness areas without going all the way to Bend. The Deschutes covers 2,495 square miles; fs.usda.gov/deschutes/.
Okanogan-Wenatchee: This merged forest sprawls over 2,717 square miles on the east slope of the Washington Cascades, from the Canadian border south beyond the White Pass Highway to the east side of the Goat Rocks Wilderness. Its wonders are legend in Washington: the Enchantment Basin in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, much of Lake Chelan and big swaths of the Glacier Peak and Pasayten wilderness areas.
In recent summers, however, this forest has been impacted more by wildfire than any other in the region. The relatively difficult access, due to so much wilderness designation, impacts of the burns and comparatively light population keeps visitation, and thus popularity, down. But just try getting one of those limited entry lottery permits to backpack into the Enchantments, because backpackers from around the country have them on their radar. The forest is based in Wenatchee; fs.usda.gov/okawen/.
Fremont-Winema vs. Siuslaw
Fremont-Winema: Another merger of two national forests, the Fremont-Winema covers a huge swath of south-central Oregon known for being the largest home for ponderosa pines. When mature, the trees' bark turns orange-gold in color and the wind whistling through their needles is one of the sweetest sounds of Northwest nature.
Wilderness is found on the east side of the Mount Thielsen and Sky Lakes areas, then again in the Mountain Lakes and Gearhart Mountain wilderness areas. That's not a lot of wild country for the 3,600 square miles, but the forest is so huge that it may be easier to find quiet car camping than to be alone in backcountry campsites in many a wilderness area. The forest is headquartered in Lakeview; fs.usda.gov/fremont-winema.
Siuslaw: This is one of only four U.S. national forests with land on the ocean. Others are in Alaska (Chugach and Tongass) and the Los Padres in California. The Siuslaw's prime ocean frontage is the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area near Yachats and then smaller slivers of coast at Sand Lake and Lincoln City.
But don't overlook the inland areas of the 991-square-mile Siuslaw, because Drift Creek Falls and its suspension bridge, plus the trio of falls at Kentucky Falls, are as scenic as the more famous falls in the Oregon Cascades.
Headquartered in Corvallis, the national forest shares one of the largest, intact, unprotected areas in the Oregon Coast Range, Devils Staircase, with the Bureau of Land Management. It's as wild as wild gets in those mountains; fs.usda.gov/siuslaw/.
Columbia River Gorge vs. Colville
Columbia River Gorge: This unique-in-the-Northwest unit of the U.S. Forest Service encompasses land on the Oregon and Washington sides of the Columbia River Gorge, from Troutdale-Washougal on the west to the Deschutes River-Maryhill on the east. Management is through a multi-governmental commission to deal with private and state lands within the boundary.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture lands inside the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area are spectacular indeed, even before state park recreation is added to the mix. On the Oregon side, Multnomah, Horsetail, Elowah and Wahkeena Falls are among the best national forest waterfalls in the region. Other highlights include Eagle and Herman creeks, though trails in those drainages enter the Mount Hood National Forest as they extend south into the heights.
Federal lands on the Washington side of the gorge include Dog Mountain and Catherine Creek. The boundaries of the scenic area cover 457 square miles of public and private lands, with 128 square miles of that U.S. Forest Service Lands. It's much smaller than other Northwest national forest units, but the gorge's unique character and nearness to Portland make it extremely popular. Headquarters is in Hood River, with the managing commission across the river in White Salmon; fs.usda.gov/crgnsa.
Colville: This national forest, headquartered in Colville in northeast Washington, is one of the wilder places in the two Northwest states, with a population of grizzly bears and forest caribou where the forest meets Idaho and British Columbia. The Colville National Forest also provided the 2013 Christmas tree for the U.S. Capitol.
The Colville sprawls across a series of north-south mountain ranges, including the Kettle River and Selkirk ranges that soar high above deep valleys where the Columbia and Pend Oreille rivers flow. High points of the 1,491-square mile national forest include Copper Butte, Abercrombie Mountain and Gypsy Peak, high points of Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille, respectively. Gypsy Peak is highest, at 7,309 feet in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness, and is known for its annual early summer closure due to heavy grizzly bear use.
The farthest northeast part of Washington is in the Kaniksu National Forest, which crosses the Idaho line and is managed through Region 1 of the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula, Mont.; fs.usda.gov/colville.
Mount Baker-Snoqualmie vs. Rogue River-Siskiyou
Mount Baker-Snoqualmie: Two national forests merged into one created a 2,694-square mile landscape that sprawls across the west side of the Washington Cascades, from the Canadian border on the north to Mount Rainier on the south. The forest gushes with spectacular settings, but is one of the busier national forests for recreation due to its proximity to the cities of Puget Sound.
Nevertheless, it is busy for a reason: it has so much great stuff to see and do. Some of the best was removed from the forest in 1968, when North Cascades National Park was created, but it still has Mount Baker, Glacier Peak and countless hundreds more mountains that attract climbers from near and far.
The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie also has rafting and kayaking on the Skykomish River, plus the west side of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, which is much less in demand for a permit than the east side. Skiers especially love Crystal Mountain and Mt. Baker resorts. Headquarters is in Everett; fs.usda.gov/mbs/.
Rogue River-Siskiyou: These two southwest Oregon forests were combined in 2004 into a 2,692-square-mile national forest based in Medford. While it has characteristics of west slope Cascade forests, it's also deliciously different than other Region 6 national forests because of California-type vegetation of the Klamath and Siskiyou mountains.
Despite its name, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest doesn't have the headwaters of the Rogue River, which rises in Crater Lake National Park before entering the national forest. Public lands management of the Rogue River, lower down, is shared with the BLM, but the national forest has the two gems: the upriver Rogue Gorge and the wild river's Blossom Bar Rapids.
Other forest highlights include the Sky Lakes Wilderness on the west side of the Cascades and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in the rugged and remote Klamath Mountains; fs.usda.gov/rogue-siskiyou/.
Willamette vs. Malheur and Umatilla
Willamette: From Opal Creek on the north to Oakridge on the south, the Willamette National Forest covers the middle western slope of the Oregon Cascades. And it covers it well, from having the prime access to Mount Jefferson to the pristine waters of Waldo Lake.
The Willamette also has the western approaches to the Three Sisters Wilderness and its namesake volcanoes. Signature waterfalls include Sahalie and Salt Creek, while paddlers enjoy the magical waters of Clear Lake just as much as the rafters, fishermen and bikers love the recreation on the river that flows from the lake, the McKenzie.
Beyond the obvious gems, the Willamette has many small campgrounds nestled in the forest to cater to Willamette Valley residents, from Portland on the north to Eugene on the south. The 2,622-qaure mile national forest is based in Springfield; fs.usda.gov/willamette/.
Malheur and Umatilla: These two separate forests are combined into one for the purpose of this reader poll simply because the number of entrants needed to be 16, not 17. The 2,290-square mile Malheur National Forest is based in John Day. The 2,199-square mile Umatilla National Forest is split between Oregon and Washington and is based in Pendleton.
The Malheur sprawls across east-central Oregon, with the Strawberry Wilderness as a featured attraction, but the miles of pine trees and uncrowded campgrounds and trails, above forks of the John Day River, are its signature feature; fs.usda.gov/malheur.
The Umatilla covers much of the Blue Mountains, most notably along Interstate 84 where it climbs east of Pendleton, a place that often makes newscasts in winter because of winter driving conditions. The Umatilla's signature feature are the deep canyons of the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness Area on both side of the Oregon-Washington state border. Oregon Butte at 6,387 feet is the high point in the area, but it's in Washington; fs.usda.gov/umatilla.
Umpqua vs. Wallowa-Whitman
Umpqua: The 1,536-square mile Umpqua National Forest takes up a big part of eastern Douglas County, plus part of the Calapooya Mountains in southeast Lane County, on the west slope of the south-central Cascades of Oregon. The forest's best-known feature is the North Umpqua River, a world-renowned steelhead stream, which is followed most of the way as visitors drive into the forest east from the headquarters at Roseburg to the popular resort and camping area at Diamond Lake.
Mount Thielsen, which looks improbably steep, is the high point at 9,182 feet. Other peaks in the forest are less notable, but nevertheless rise above outstanding hiking and camping opportunities through the valleys of the Umpqua, north and south forks. The Umpqua River system is known for its many waterfalls, including Watson Creek and Toketee that are at the top of many a visitor's list. The forest includes the world's tallest sugar pine tree at 255 feet; fs.usda.gov/umpqua.
Wallowa-Whitman: The 3,738-sqaure mile national forest covers much of the mountains and canyons of northeast Oregon, including the high peaks of the Wallowa Range in the Eagle Cap Wilderness down to the depths of Hells Canyon on the Oregon side of the Snake River.
Headquartered in Baker City, the Wallowa-Whitman extends far beyond those gems, with parts of the forest in the Blue Mountains that include Mount Emily with its Indian Rock Overlook high and above La Grande. The Elkhorn Range west of Baker City and the Monument Rock Wilderness in far southwest Baker County are other gems of the Wallowa-Whitman. And don't forget the skiing at Anthony Lake.
While the heart of the Eagle Cap is one of the most sough-after summer backpacking destinations in Oregon, the trailheads from southern entry portals make it seem like no one else is there; fs.usda.gov/wallowa-whitman/.
-- Terry Richard
trichard@oregonian.com
503-221-8222; @trichardpdx