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Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas – January, 2021 Update

Heading into 2020 we had plans to visit 5 of the 6 remaining wilderness areas in which he haven’t hiked (post), but 2020 had other plans. Plans to visit three of the areas were moved to another year and a fourth was pushed back from May to September. Flooding in February wiped out our plans to visit the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness which was the same trip that we had planned on visiting the Black Canyon Wilderness. Rearranging hikes due to COVID-19 pushed a visit to the Devils Staircase Wilderness back a year.

Plans for a Memorial Day weekend trip to Roseburg involving a hike in the Boulder Creek Wilderness were a COVID cancellation but we managed to fit the Boulder Creek hike into our Labor Day weekend plans (post).
Boulder Creek Wilderness sign

Boulder Creek TrailPonderosa Pines in the Boulder Creek Wilderness

Looking up the Boulder Creek ValleyBoulder Creek Wilderness

Boulder CreekBoulder Creek

A July vacation to Lakeview and a visit to the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness (post) was the only visit that happened as planned.
Gearhart Mountain Wilderness sign

The Palisades in the Gearhart Mountain WildernessThe Palisades

Gearhart MountainGearhart Mountain

View from Gearhart MountainLooking down from Gearhart Mountain

Meadow below Gearhart MountainMeadow below Gearhart Mountain

Gearhat MountainLooking up at Gearhart Mountain

Visiting these two wildernesses puts us at 42 out of the 46 accessible wilderness. The three areas mentioned above are again in our plans for this year as well as the Monument Rock Wilderness in eastern Oregon. With any luck 2021 will be a better year and we will be able to reach our goal, but if not there’s always next year. Happy Trails!

9 replies on “Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas – January, 2021 Update”

You got some great shots of the Gearhart. We did a drive-by last year of the Devils Staircase just to say we “visited” it. So we’ve at least touched all 48. While I have detailed info on how to hike down (cross-country) to the staircase, we didn’t use it because the journey looked like it would be TOO MUCH of an adventure. We just appreciated it from afar. 🙂

We’re still working on completing all of the featured hikes in at least 1 edition of Sullivan’s books covering the 5 areas in Oregon, that’s going to take a bit. We have a couple of Counties that we haven’t hiked in yet too so that’s one we’re aiming for. After that visiting lookouts and lighthouses has been a thought.

[…] Every year we pick our vacation time in January/February (due to work) so we never know what the conditions will be when we choose. We had a week scheduled in July for a trip to the John Day area in hopes to make further headway on the 100 featured hikes in Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” (post) and to complete our goal of visiting all of Oregon’s designated wilderness areas (minus the two that are closed to human visitors) (post). […]

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