Just my opinion, but there is nothing worse than sweating in a rain shell. When the weather turns to rain, clouds block in the valley, and it’s not yet cold enough to snow, I love to take a long, slow, casual walk somewhere in the woods. I suggest you bring a thermos full of tea and some snacks, cozy clothes to change in to when you are finished, and leave the headphones at home. Talk to the birds, notice the trees, inspect mushroom colonies and take a minute to admire the lichens up close. Does that sound boring to you? Only boring if you can’t find anything to appreciate about being outside in the fresh air. Try it sometime.

Stub Stewart State Park

One of my favorite places to forage in autumn. These trails don’t provide a lot of solitude, but the majority of your fellow humans will be passing by on bikes, so their interruptions are very temporary and rarely require small talk. Pick any trailhead, ramble any which way you like. Make time to observe the locations of fruit trees and take notes for next year. You’re scouting future forage sites and you’re getting some forest medicine in at the same time, what more do you need from a rainy fall afternoon?

Deschutes River Trail

Sometimes the grey is just too much for me. Hop on over to the better side of the cascades, where even on a cloudy day the sky feels open and expansive. My favorite thing about this region of Oregon is the way you can feel your minuscule place in the arc of time and space out here. This landscape is timeless; our petty human problems are insignificant in the depths of a canyon carved by wind, water, and time.

You can start this hike at the Deschutes State Park along the confluence with the might Columbia River, or you can take the long way around to Mack’s Canyon and start your hike down there. Mack’s Canyon is by far the most scenic, but you’ll be scrambling in and out of small draws as you go, which can be somewhat athletic and also incredibly muddy, depending on the weather conditions. Still worth it though, in my opinion.

Wilson River Trail and Gales Creek

So many quiet places to be alone in the forest here. Obviously, I am partial to the Tillamook State Forest. Gales Creek is often described at simply “convenient”, an assessment, frankly, that hurts my feelings. Gales Creek is a spooky, quiet place of ancient beauty. A graveyard of the old, primeval forests that were logged, and then burned in the great fires. Gales Creek is a majestic, timeless place. It is much more than a convenient place to run. Come learn the secrets of its solitude.

The Wilson River Trail, likewise, is a journey unto itself as you traverse forested hillsides, wind along the bank, and take it all the sights and sounds of this beautiful coast range river as we trace its path to the sea. Don’t skip on the side trails, either. You never know which one will lead to the towering pinnacles or the forested grotto of your dreams, the perfect place to get a closer look at the river. Try them all; you’ll thank me later.

The 400 Trail and Historic Scenic Columbia River Highway

Ah, the old 400. I’m going to let you in on a secret: my favorite way to find solitude in the Columbia River gorge is to pick the most obscure, boring sounding, destination-less trails and make a day looping around view-less peaks and traversing power line roads. It may not be the fanciest destinations in the gorge, but the solitude more than makes up for it, in my opinion. Pick a section that has no destination, is hard to get to, or seems like it might be boring. Boring is good. Pro tip: Take every side trail. All of ‘em.

Much less solitude available on the HSCRH bike path, but just like the Stub Stewart trail, you’ll mostly see bikes and they’ll move through quickly, leaving you to enjoy the long, rambling walk above the freeway. Bring earplugs for this one, the interstate is too loud to enjoy forest sounds. Another favorite place to forage for currants, greens and various other berries, mushrooms and rosehips.

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I know I said September is the best time of year in Oregon, but October is just as perfect in its own way. The weather is cooler, the leaves begin to drop, the rains return. Almost anywhere you go is lovely, and most of the fires are out by now, so you can count on cleaner air. Here are my five suggestions for travel in the month of October. No matter where you go, get your sunny days in before it rains so much you forget what sunshine feels like on your skin.

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The Oregon Coast

Hands down, this is the best time of year to visit the beach. The skies are often clear and sunny in the early part of fall. A great time for a chill coastie hike, like Saddle Mountain, Neahkanhie, Cape Falcon, or the Drift Creek Wilderness.

I also love driving my car out on to the beach and having a picnic on the tailgate north of Cape Kiwanda, heading inland and upriver to explore the canyons (on literally any coastal river, they are all stunning, just pick one), or exploring the spits that curl out into any of the bays lining the north coast. Nestucca, Netarts, Bayocean…

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Crater Lake National Park

Don’t get me started on Oregon only having one National Park. I mean, maybe it’s for the best, after all, the National parks are always crawling with tourist fuckery all summer long. Once school is back in session, the cold weather hits, and the crowds abate, there is plenty of solitude to be found in the park. I like to play on the eastern side of the lake, which always feels less populated to me, and obviously, if you take any detours provided off the main park loop and you’ll find more solitude, too. This is a super unique landscape; when I’m here I find myself making comparisons to Mount Saint Helens, and Spirit Lake. Which brings me to me next suggestion….

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Mount Saint Helens National Monument

Technically, I prefer to focus on Oregon destinations, because that’s what I know best, but Loowit is and will always be my favorite mountain. Fall is a beautiful time to visit the Mount Margaret backcountry, where the huckleberry bushes are turning scarlet, or wind your way up Ape Canyon to the Plains of Abraham, one of the most eerie and otherworldly parts of the blast zone.

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Old Salmon River Trail

That old salmon river trail never gets old. No matter how many years I watch the giant maples drop their leaves on the deeply pockmarked Salmon River Road, the magic never wears off. The Salmon River is musical and mellow as it winds its way through the forest here, there are plenty of opportunities to visit side trails that lead to mossy, rocky beaches, wind through ancient stands of trees, and visit the beautiful, mossy slopes of the canyon hillside.

Some of us might be hungry for more than a rather flat, five mile hike, in which case you can just keep going up the salmon river trail to the overlook, make your way up green canyon way, or (my personal favorite) trek up river a few miles to the blissfully forgotten and less travelled Salmon Butte.

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Painted Hills, John Day National Monument

An Oregon road trip classic, you just have to go to the painted hills. Even though it’s really far from most major population centers, even though it’s not the coolest part of the three-piece monument, even though the best examples of the Painted Hills features are actually located on private land interspersed around the local area, you should definitely go see it. What better excuse could you have to spend some time in the Ochocos while you’re out there, or travel through one of my favorite parts of Oregon, Wasco county. Pack a cooler, fill up on gas, grab a buddy or two, a camera, and a good map. There’s a lot to see out yonder in the eastern part of the state, and I wouldn’t want you to miss out on all the fun the rest of us are having.

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A MINI GUIDE TO THE OREGON DESERT

September is the best time of year in Oregon. It’s the perfect time to visit the alpine, there’s so much great foraging at every elevation, the leaves start to turn but generally we are blessed with lovely weather and it’s enjoyable to be outdoors anywhere. My personal favorite, if I have to pick, is to spend September in the dry Oregon desert. You can count on cool nights, lots of wind, maybe a thunderstorm or a dust storm will roll through just to shake things up. The camping opportunities are abundant, the solitude is easy, and there are no reservations, no permits required, just show up and choose your own adventure. I love feeling free to move about as I please and I love the solitude the desert always provides. If you’d love to go get lost, too, but don’t know where to start, here are five places I’m dreaming of for the end-of-summer season.

Smith Rock State Park

Of course you’ve already been to Smith, maybe you grew up going there like myself, but consider this your reminder to check up on an old friend and get a little extra sunshine under your belt before you endure another long drab winter under the cloak of cloud cover in the valley. Once school is back in session, find a weekday to skip off and beat the crowds while you wander among the towering cliffs and spires, and admire the Crooked River as it winds it way around each bend. Watch for large, gentle bull snakes coiled in the shadows of a stately juniper or stretched lazily across the trail in the early morning sun. Lots of options and they are all scenic, so just go wander around and get lost. You won’t mind.

After a long hike and maybe a dip in the river, find yourself a rugged, dispersed camp at Skull Hollow or up near Grey’s Butte. If you don’t mind the extra mileage, hiking in to the park from Grey’s Butte is a nice way to pick up some extra solitude before and after you dance with the hoards in the core of the park. I love to trail run in from Grey’s Butte at dawn and try and beat the heat as I circumnavigate the park. Can you make it through the most popular areas before the crowds arrive? Good luck and Godspeed!

DeGarmo Canyon

My friends, you cannot take a bad picture in this canyon if you tried. It is too darn scenic. Hike to a waterfall in the desert, travel off trail up canyon to a notch, pass beautiful shelter caves carved into red-violet rocks, descend into a valley on the mountaintop, where you’ll find a hot springs campground- all in one hike. It is a delightful sampling of high desert features like rock formations, secret waterfalls, caves, animals, aspen groves, and spectacular views of the valley below. Easily, DeGarmo is in my top five best hikes in Oregon list. What are the other four, you might ask? I’ll tell ya later. Don’t get me started. DeGarmo is too perfect to describe. Just look at these pictures and decide for yourself.

Mack’s Canyon and the Deschutes River Trail

The road to Mack’s is long. Bumpy, overused in the summer months by rafting outfitters and others, but in the “off-season” you can usually find a fair amount of peace and quiet. Might only be you and a few scattered fishermen, lurking the banks and standing sentinel on the fridges of the river, casting gracefully, patiently.

As you wind your way along the washboard road that follows this lower section of the river to its confluence with the mighty Columbia, you gain many epic views of this dramatic, towering canyon. Arriving in Mack’s Canyon always takes my breath away. Towering basalt landforms, talus fields and blankets of golden grasses that catch the eye and shimmer like velvet. The regal Deschutes, always a beautiful blue swath of water carving long around the headwalls and swirling in the depths. Spending time on the Deschutes is always good medicine.

The first miles of trail here, heading northward are mostly flat but the terrain is rugged, the bridges are out, you can expect to use your feet and hands to navigate through the gullies where train bridges once spanned these sometimes imposing creek chasms, but now you are on your own, scrambling, sliding and navigating back to the path again. Watch in the trees and along the rivers edges for hawks, osprey, eagles, herons and, my personal favorite, the pairs of blue-grey cranes. Keep a keen eye out, in the pastures and rolling hills, for bighorn sheep, mule deer, or maybe even the odd mountain goat or bear.

Hike as far as you’d like, take side trips up narrow canyons and down to the river on fishermen’s trails, and then return the way you came.

Glass Buttes

Is it a hike? No, not really. It’s more of a wander. Go wander around at Glass Buttes, pick up obsidian chips, camp amount beautiful ancient junipers, admire the beauty of an area most people foolishly consider “the most boring part of Oregon”. You and I know better, my dear. There is nothing boring about expansiveness. Nothing boring about easy, fun rock hounding. Nothing boring about treasure hunting for rare sheen obsidian chips with your friends. Dispersed camping here isn’t super private, but all the established camping areas are tidy and well kept. You’ll enjoy your time here, even just taking in the views.

Lost Forest and Shifting Sand Dunes

Is it a hike? Yes! Is there a trail? No. Will you see other hikers? Doubtful! Will you experience solitude? Umm, not really.

Mainly a Mecca for OHV enthusiasts, there’s still plenty for the rest of us to see and explore here in this massive complex of sand dunes. Park in the expansive staging area and take off on foot through the dunes. Roam the “Lost Forest” of seemingly misplaced Ponderosa pines, who are able to thrive in this dry environment thanks to moisture trapped underground by the ever changing dunes system. Forget about destinations out here. Just roam in the direction of the least number of people, admire the trees, watch birds wheeling in the sky, and return the way you came.

DeGarmo Canyon 42.47896, -119.78905

Mack’s Canyon 45.38802, -120.87473

Smith Rock 44.37712, -121.13303

Glass Buttes 43.55969, -120.00577

Lost Forest 43.37200, -120.32071