Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest

Stretching from the Pacific Coast to the Cascade crest in southwestern Oregon and into northern California, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest covers 1.7 million acres of some of the most exceptionally biodiverse terrain in North America. The Siskiyou Mountains harbor an extraordinary concentration of endemic plant species found nowhere else on Earth, many adapted to the region's unique serpentine soils derived from ancient oceanic crust. The Kalmiopsis Wilderness, named for the rare pre-Ice Age shrub Kalmiopsis leachiana, protects 179,000 acres of this botanical wonderland. The Wild and Scenic Rogue River is legendary for multi-day rafting trips through a 40-mile wilderness canyon where black bears, river otters, and osprey are commonly sighted from the water, and historic lodges along the banks offer riverside accommodations. The forest also protects the Wild Rogue Wilderness, the Red Buttes Wilderness straddling the Oregon-California border, and the Grassy Knob Wilderness near the coast. The Illinois River, one of the most challenging whitewater runs in the West, cuts through the Kalmiopsis region, while the coastal sections of the forest offer dramatic ocean headlands, old-growth Sitka spruce groves, and access to some of the most scenic stretches of the Oregon and northern California coastlines.