Of all the places I have ventured out in the world, one of my very favorites is a small, shallow lake in a high mountain basin outside of Oakridge, Oregon. I discovered Blair Lake by accident while exploring around on some forest service road with friends right after I moved here. It was September, and the huckleberry bushes were beginning to dot the hillsides with bright red. I think that was the main thing we noticed, was all the good huckleberry picking. Then as we drove up into the lake basin, I saw the gravel road lined with narrow, dwarfed subalpine fir trees, I felt like I had entered a magical fairy forest. We discovered a shallow, warm lake sparkling in the sun, lined with a handful of walk-in campsites on the western shore. I knew right then that I was going to come back to this place a lot. For the last five years, we have gone up there every September, often two weekends in a row, to pick huckleberries and camp by the lake.
Sometimes we go with a big group, we bring new friends and old friends, and sometimes we just go as a family by ourselves. I love returning to the same spot year after year, and knowing that some things in the world can still be unchanging. We change, the weather changes, the campsites change a little, the people who come with us change, some years there are abundant berries and some years not, but Blair Lake and the basin that holds it, always look the same to me.
Because it is such a small, shallow lake, it is great for swimming on hot, September afternoons. It’s no more than a foot or two deep for a very long ways out, so children and parents can have a pretty carefree swimming experience. Dragonflies dance around on the water all afternoon, and kids love watching them, and rescuing the ones that get waterlogged. It’s also a good spot for canoeing and fishing. In the morning, the water is like glass, and reflects the fiery hues of fall color, and dark green spruce forest on the hillside. In the evening the little bats come out and flit around the darkening sky. I’m not sure what bugs they’re catching up there, but this time of year Blair lake is mosquito free! I hear that’s not the case earlier in the summer, so I can’t recommend this as a summer camping spot. Actually, the basin is under snow until early summer some years, so it’s really a fall camping destination.
Here is the prized treasure we come each year to seek, huckleberries. It’s a really nice area to pick around the campground, and older children can play in the lake while you pick. I have to say, the berry yield isn’t the most reliable here. Some years there are so many berries you can come back and pick over and over, and it never seems picked over. Other years, they are thin (this was one of them) and one year we came and there were none. Regardless, I enjoy camping here even if we don’t find the berries. We have our Mt. Adams trip as the regular standby for that earlier in August. The berries we pick at Blair Lake are just icing on the cake!
We found one favorite picking spot a ways down a forest service road nearby on an open hillside dotted with small fir trees. Kids love running around and playing in the miniature forest when they tire of picking. Since the whole hillside is covered in huckleberry bushes, it’s all red with their flaming autumn leaves. It’s one of my favorite things to see when I’m up in the mountains in the fall.
This year I made another exciting find besides berries. Since this campground is frequented by bow and rifle hunters once deer season starts, many things, I’m sure get dropped in the woods and lost. I have always had a knack for finding lost things, like fishing tackle along lake shores, knitted wool hats on deserted wilderness hiking trails, and good beach combing finds. Under some forest duff at the edge of a berry bush, I found a really nice Smith and Wesson hatchet. It’s just the right size for backpacking! Then I spied something shiny when I was tromping around through the brush, and it was this survival knife. Both tools were sharpened, and in good shape in spite of being out in the weather for a season or two. I was pleased with my finds.
To visit the USFS website for Blair Lake Campground, visit:
and their National Public Lands website at:
Happy Camping!
thank you for sharing,
I wished being there!
have a nice day
heike
sick!!!!!! free tools! You are a natural born forager.
Do you still frequent Blair Lake? Are the mosquitoes bad earlier in the season? I'm looking for places to camp with my kiddos. I'm not a fan of the $20/night campgrounds. We'd rather hike in a bit, but the kids are still young.
We haven't been since 2013, but it was very much unchanged. The earliest in the season I have ever gone is August, and the mosquitoes weren't a problem, but I don't know what they would be like earlier. The nice thing about Blair Lake with young kids is the walk-in campsites, so you can feel like you're having a more remote outdoor experience. It would still be one of my top recommendations for kid camping. Have fun!
I’ve seen that most of the sites are walk-in. Is it a long walk to the sites or very hard to lug gear into them?
It isn’t a very long walk to the sites at all, and totally manageable to haul a few loads of gear in. There are also three drive up sites that are really nice.