Social Distancing = Close-to-Home Southern Oregon Summer Backpacking Adventures
Being outside is good for us. Nature and fresh air can help us relax, feel less stressed and more alive. Backpacking is a Southern Oregon tradition. Packing a few days’ worth of supplies in our overnight packs, and setting off to explore and camp out in the remote wilderness is an ideal activity that we can safely do while maintaining social distance and not put us our others at greater risk as long as we take the following Covid 19 precautions.
- Be self sufficient to maximize your social distancing potential.
- Take all of your trash with you when you leave and throw it away at home, even if the site has trash receptacles. Some places might not be fully staffed and might not be able to keep up with maintenance.
- Hiking should be done alone or with people from the same household.
- If the trail is too crowded and you can’t maintain a good social distance from others, move on.
- Keep your gas tank full and bring enough food and supplies for the entire trip.
Southern Oregon provides the opportunity to find solitude on the trails and backcountry campsites. There are many little-known gems if you look hard enough. Check out these NW Nature Shop favorite backcountry destinations. They are BIG areas and because we are far from large population centers, you can surely find solitude.
- Kalmiopsis Wilderness Rare plants, rugged terrain and exceptionally clear waters.
- North Umpqua Lush and green. Old growth forests, fern groves.
- Trinity Alps Wilderness Sweeping views, granite peaks, pristine lakes and big conifers.
- Marble Mountain Wilderness A backpacking paradise with wildflower valleys and alpine lakes.
- Russian Wilderness Cross-country adventures to seldom visited alpine lakes.
- Sky Lakes Wilderness A perfectly symmetrical volcanic peak, more lakes than we can count and many seldom visited trails.
The following resources are on our website, or come into the NW Nature Shop for a greater selection of hiking guides, field guides and maps:
Many Southern Oregon hikes are described in detail in the thorough, well-researched:
100 Hikes in Southern Oregon by William Sullivan available on our website or for porch-side pick-up.
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