Willamette National Forest: The Middle of Everything Oregon

The Willamette National Forest sits in the middle of Oregon's Cascade Range, covering more than one and a half million acres of peaks, lava fields, wilderness, and river corridors. Highway Twenty-Two follows the North Santiam River through the forest from Salem east to the Santiam Pass. Highway One Twenty-Six follows the McKenzie River west from Eugene into the high Cascades. These two corridors, separated by the Three Sisters and Mount Jefferson to the north, make the Willamette the most-accessed national forest in Oregon for western-side residents.

The Three Sisters Wilderness, which the Willamette shares with the Deschutes National Forest to the east, covers about two hundred forty thousand acres of high Cascades terrain around three volcanic peaks, named North Sister, Middle Sister, and South Sister, each around ten thousand feet. The Collier Glacier, between the North and Middle Sisters, is one of the largest remaining glaciers in Oregon.

The McKenzie River is a national-class white-water river and a benchmark of Oregon's Wild and Scenic River system. The river drops through old-growth forest and lava flows for most of its length before entering the Willamette Valley near Eugene. The Sahalie and Koosah Falls, where the river drops over a lava ledge, are among the most dramatic waterfall sequences in the state.

The forest also includes Waldo Lake, near the crest of the range, which has some of the purest water of any lake in North America. Its clarity results from its isolation from the agricultural runoff that affects most lowland lakes. At certain angles, standing water at the lake's edge appears to have no surface at all.

The Kalapuya people were the original inhabitants of the Willamette Valley. Their territory extended up the river drainages into the foothills that are now forest land.