Umpqua Backcountry Discovery Trail
- OTG Crew
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
300-plus miles of dirt and gravel through the Umpqua and Willamette National Forests, chasing waterfalls, crossing two different generations of Cascade volcanoes, and finishing through the ghosts of the Bohemia gold rush. The Umpqua BDT hits old growth rainforest, hot springs, rentable fire lookouts, and a CCC guard station still standing from 1934. Expect softroading for most of the route, with the occasional stretch of rocks and detiorated on the trail.
Route Overview
Trip Length & Season
Adventure Rating: Epic Trip Length: 321 mi, 3-6 days Season: June thru October is the safe bet, but the route may be open earlier/later in the season depending on seasonal weather (snow).
Digital Maps & GPX Files
Download Digital Mapping Files
If you need help working with digital mapping and GPX files, please check out our FAQ section.
Technical Ratings & Terrain
Avg Technical Rating: 2-3
Peak Technical Rating: 4
Typical Terrain: The vast majority of this route qualifies as soft roading: mostly graded or mild dirt and gravel roads. A handful of rocky sections and eroded stretches add occasional bumps, but overall it's easy to knock out solid mileage each day.
Recommended Vehicle / Moto / Adventure Vans
Recommended Vehicle: Stock 4x4
Recommended Moto: A full size or mid-weight bike.
Adventure Vans: Sprinters and Transits (4x4/AWD) are good to go.
Fuel, Provisions, and Recommended Gear
Fuel:
Glide to Crescent Lake is 150 mi (fuel at Hwy 58)
Diamond Lake to Oakridge is 100 mi
Oakridge to Glide is 105 mi
Provisions: Provisions can be obtained in the same general vicinity as fuel. Gear: n/a
Alternative Routes
Fairview Peak Track Distance: 23 miles Technical Rating: 2
This track takes users to three different discovery points, the Musick Guard Station, Fairview Peak Lookout, and the Bomehmia Mines.
Camping Recommendations
Both the Umpqua and Willamette National Forests offer dispersed camping throughout. Some of our favorite places to camp along the route include:
Dispersed sites near East Lomolo and Inlet Campgrounds
Summet Lake campground
Timpanogas Lake campground
Middle Fork Willamette dispersed sites (near Sacandaga CG)
Logger Butte
Grass Mountain
Reynolds Camp
Steamboat Falls campground
Discovery Points
Colliding Rivers
North Umpqua River
Wolf Creek Falls
Grotto Falls
Emile Shelter
Fairy Shelter
Yakso Falls
Youtlkut Pillars
Watson Falls
Toketee Falls
Umpqua Hot Springs
Mount Bailey
Warm Springs Falls
Crescent Lake
Diamond Peak
Timpanogas Cabin
Middle Fork Willamette River
Logger Butte
Warner Mountain Lookout
Hills Creek Reservoir
Middle Fork Willamette River
Oakridge
Grass Mountain
Musick Guard Station
Bohemia Mines
Fairview Lookout
Steamboat Falls
Land Managers & Other Resources
Land Managers
Permits & Papers
n/a
Route Details
The Oregon Cascades come in two layers, and this route spends its time crossing back and forth between them. The Western Cascades are the older set, roughly 17 to 25 million years of volcanic rock that's been sitting out in the weather long enough to be carved into steep, tight drainages and knife ridges. East of those sit the High Cascades, the young volcanoes, the ones that still look like volcanoes: Diamond Peak, Mount Bailey, and the shield cones and cinder piles built in the last two million years. The line between the two is where most of the interesting things happen. Old lava flows cooled into vertical columns that now stand exposed on the hillsides, and rivers cut down through stacked flows of hard basalt and softer ash until they hit a resistant ledge and go over it. That's why there are so many waterfalls out here, and why they cluster the way they do.
Then there's the water itself. Storms blowing in from the Pacific hit this side of the Cascades gets hit first, and the North Umpqua drainage collects a serious amount of water. What grows in response is temperate rainforest in the real sense of the term: Douglas fir and western hemlock growing upwards of 200 feet, sword fern and Oregon grape underneath, and moss on anything that holds still long enough. The route covers over 300 miles of dirt, gravel, and short pavement connectors through the Umpqua and Willamette National Forests. The route guide follows a counterclockwise direction from Highway 138 just east of Glide, but it runs just as well in either direction. Most of it is easy going, the kind of soft roading where you can actually look around while you drive, with a handful of rougher stretches in between the long stretches of graded dirt trails.
We begin our adventure on the pavement of the North Umpqua Highway, crossing the North Umpqua River (DP) right away before climbing straight into the mountains. Recent fires and logging have opened up a lot of this hillside, which means views you wouldn't otherwise get through this kind of canopy. Wolf Creek Falls (DP) sits on this end of the route, reached on foot from the Little River side. The road works up and over the mountain through thick forest before dropping down the southern flank to Little River, where you'll pick up a short stint of pavement running alongside the water past Coolwater Campground. Coolwater and White Creek both make great stops if you're timing your first night here, quiet and right on the river. Be sure to make the short walk in to Grotto Falls (DP) while you're through here.
Back onto dirt, the road climbs toward Lookout Mountain on mostly gravel and the views open up as you gain elevation. Emile Shelter (DP) shows up along the way, one of a scattered set of backcountry shelters in this part of the Cascades that you'll keep running into as the route goes on. Despite the name, skip the road to the actual Lookout Mountain summit. It's badly overgrown and there's nothing at the top worth the fight. Coming down the far side you'll pass Fairy Shelter (DP), another of the same family. Yakso Falls (DP) sits about a mile off the route at Lake in the Woods Campground, a 70 foot drop under heavy canopy with a 1.5 mile round trip on foot to reach it, and it's the kind of dense, dripping, green setting people picture when they picture Oregon waterfalls. Not far past that, Youtlkut Pillars (DP) stands roughly 200 yards off the main track on a side road, a tall face of columnar dacite at around 4,000 feet. There are 16 established climbing routes on it in the 5.6 to 5.9 range with fixed anchors up top, so don't be surprised if you find people on it.
Heading east, the trail runs in and out of the forest on mellow dirt and gravel roads. The Highway 138 waterfall corridor is close by through here, and Watson Falls (DP) is tallest of the bunch at 272 feet, one of the tallest in Oregon and reached by a short, steep climb. Toketee Falls (DP) drops in two tiers, 40 feet and then 80 feet, over a wall of columnar basalt that shows off the geology of this place about as plainly as it can be shown. The name is Chinook for something like graceful. A few miles off the route is a local favorite, Umpqua Hot Springs (DP), which sits on a travertine bluff above the river with terraced pools stacked up the slope. Not far away you'll find Warm Springs Falls (DP), a block falls in the same drainage system that requires a short hike to reach. Keep an eye out for Mount Bailey (DP) standing up over the Diamond Lake basin at 8,368 feet, a High Cascades shield volcano and a good marker for how far east you've come.
The route nearly touches Highway 138 again before turning off for a detour around Trap Mountain, where the forest closes in and the trees get tall. The trail narrows in spots without getting difficult, then widens again and dumps you onto Highway 138 for about a mile before you're back on dirt heading toward Lemolo Lake. Call it 115 miles to this point.
From Lemolo, we work up and around Windigo Butte by way of Windigo Pass, which is how you get over to Crescent Lake (DP). It's thick forest most of the way, with one burn patch that opens up the views before the trees close back in, and you'll cross the Pacific Crest Trail at the pass. The descent toward the lake is slow and easy. It's a big, popular recreation lake, and Tandy Bay picnic area makes a good lunch stop, though if you want to get right down to the water, head over to Tranquil Cove instead.
Leaving Crescent Lake for Summit Lake, the road gets bumpier than anything so far, with some erosion and exposed rock, though nothing that requires much beyond picking a decent line and keeping your speed down. Road 2154, also called Timpanogas Road, carries you around the mountain in good condition and back into easy soft roading through thick forest around Emigrant Butte. Diamond Peak (DP) is the landmark out here, an 8,744 foot shield volcano anchoring the wilderness that shares its name. Timpanogas Cabin (DP) is worth pulling in to look at, and it makes a great place to camp, though it's a reservable site. If someone's got it, give them their space.
Heading north, the route passes through another burn zone, and this one opens up a long look at the Cascade Range. You'll cross the South Fork Willamette with good riverside camping through here, burn a couple of miles of pavement, then get back on gravel and start working toward Warner Mountain along the spine of a ridge. This is the best of the route for views. Logger Butte (DP) is the first payoff and doubles as a good campsite. Warner Mountain Lookout (DP) comes next, a replica cupola-style lookout built in 1987 on a 41 foot tower at 5,300 feet, sitting in noble fir, mountain hemlock, and silver fir. It's rentable through Recreation.gov and books up fast, so plan ahead if you want a night in it. Call it mile 203 at the lookout.
From Warner Mountain we drop down to Hills Creek Reservoir (DP) and take the gravel road around the east side. The route parallels the Middle Fork Willamette River (DP) on dirt for a stretch, then hits pavement, then picks dirt back up as it climbs. Most folks will run into Oakridge to refuel, and the old timber town is worth an hour of your time on its own. There's about nine miles of pavement on the climb before dirt resumes a few miles short of Grass Mountain (DP), which has views that justify the drive by themselves and good camping to go with them. From there it's soft roading over to Loletta Lakes.
The route swings over to the Bohemia Mining District, and this is the historical heart of the trip. James "Bohemia" Johnson found gold-bearing quartz up here in 1863, and the district was formally organized in 1867. The Champion, Helena, Musick, and Noonday were the big producers, and the country never quite recovered its footing after the mines wound down. Musick Guard Station (DP) is still standing, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934 to provide fire protection for the district and named for the Musick Mine below it. It's been on the National Register since 1991 and rents to the public. The Bohemia Mines (DP) themselves are scattered around the area, and plenty of the old workings are open or partly collapsed, so watch your footing and stay on the established trails. Fairview Lookout (DP) sits up on the ridge above it all.
The last stretch of dirt drops you down to the pavement of Forest Road 38, Steamboat Creek Road, not far from Steamboat Falls (DP). It's a 25 foot block falls on a creek that's been closed to all fishing since 1932, because the whole drainage is critical steelhead spawning habitat. From May into October you can watch fish throwing themselves at it. From there it's west on FR 38 to close the loop back out on Highway 138, a few miles up the road from where you started.
Comments