The glitz and glamor of California, the Golden State, are noticeably absent just south of the Oregon border, where the wildlife refuges of the Klamath Basin and the mysterious landscape of the Lava Beds await exploration.
Both are home turf to residents of Klamath Falls, a prosperous south-central Oregon metro area of 66,000 residents, with a hoped-for return of commercial air service at Kingsley Field this summer, an Amtrak station and a setting on one of the most scenic highways of the West, U.S. 97.
Visitors to Klamath Falls usually first use the location as the entry point to Crater Lake, one of the scenic gems of the National Park Service. But if anything there is just as much to see and do south of town.
Especially if you like birds. Or solitude, with the main sound being breeze blowing through the juniper trees. It’s a far cry from the city delights of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, but reaffirms the diversity of Oregon’s southern neighbor.
The Klamath Basin was once home to 6 million migrating waterfowl in the spring, before many of the marshes were drained and put to the plow. Enough watery landscape remains to attract 1 million birds at spring’s peak. Most of the birds have moved on to the north already this year, though there is always abundant wildlife to see around Klamath Falls.
The area is home to six national wildlife refuges, three in Oregon, two in California and astride on the border. Oregon also has the state Klamath Wildlife Area that is even closer to Klamath Falls than the federal refuges.
There are so many wild things in the basin that it’s nothing short of a feast for the eyes.
The snow geese migration can be seen at Klamath Wildlife Area on the south edge of Klamath Falls, Ore.
Then, at the edge of all that water, the Lava Beds begin. Lava Beds National Monument has the largest concentration of lava tubes on the North American continent and has some of the most rugged country you will set foot on.
Responsible for much of the lava is the biggest volcano most people have never heard about: Medicine Lake Volcano. It lies just to the south and, being a shield volcano, is much larger in size than the more famous Mount Shasta, the stratovolcano also on the horizon.
Mount Shasta rises to 14,179 feet and has a volume of 85 cubic miles. Medicine Lake tops out at 7,795 feet but has a volume of 140 cubic miles.
