Umpqua National Forest is a primal landscape of razorback ridges and lush temperate rain forest teeming with blackberry bushes, alders, and salmonberry perfect for an escape from the trappings of modern life.

Hikers can wander timbered valleys of Douglas fir, old-growth ponderosa, and groves of oak that separate sentinels like the 9,182-foot Mt. Thielsen and the 8,363-foot Mt. Bailey. The geologically curious can explore the volcanic basalt and andesite monolithic spires with descriptive names like Eagle Rock, Rattlesnake Rock, and Old Man.

The North Umpqua River is a torrent of whitewater that sends rafters and kayakers barreling down the river gorge, occasionally dropping one of them into the frothy drink. Not only do helmeted kayakers run the river, but fisherman can also count on a bountiful summer run of steelhead. Elsewhere in the forest, secluded waterfalls offer soothing pockets of solitude far from the madding crowd.

The forest is named for the Umpqua Indians, one of several aboriginal groups who inhabited the Umpqua drainage in the early nineteenth century. They were deported in mass to the Grand Ronde and Siletz Reservations following the Rogue River Indian wars that broke out in the fall of 1855.