Southern Oregon

Southern Oregon covers the rugged southwestern interior of Oregon, the country running from the California line north to the Umpqua and from the Cascades east to the Goose Lake basin. The terrain is dramatically varied — Crater Lake’s caldera at 6,178 feet at the rim, the Rogue Valley’s vineyards and orchards at 1,400 feet, the Klamath Basin’s high desert at 4,100, and the rugged Siskiyou Mountains running along the California border. Four counties cover the region. Jackson County holds Medford (the largest city), Ashland (with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and Jacksonville (a preserved 1850s gold-rush town); Josephine holds Grants Pass and Cave Junction; Klamath holds Klamath Falls (with Oregon Tech) and most of Crater Lake National Park; Lake holds Lakeview. Crater Lake National Park, the Oregon Caves National Monument, the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest, and the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges concentrate the major scenery. Most trips here split among three threads. Crater Lake handles the largest single-stream visitor traffic — the deepest lake in the United States at 1,949 feet; Ashland’s Shakespeare Festival runs February through October; the Rogue Valley wineries and the Rogue River jet boats out of Grants Pass anchor warm-weather visits; the Klamath Basin draws birders to one of the largest wintering bald eagle populations in the country.