Blue River Oregon, an underrated gem!

Blue River, Oregon is located off Hwy 126. It is an amazing place that I had the pleasure of staying at last summer. I was living on 20 acre farm with almost no neighbors around. When I was not working I would often explore. Blue River reservoir was a couple minute walk uphill and Mckenzie River was a couple minute walk down hill. National forest and BLM surrounds the rest of the property. Blue River reservoir and Mckenzie River are only a one minute drive from each other, yet the temperature of the water is drastic. The reservoir in the summer can be unusually warm for an Oregon body of water. There are renegade free campsites all around or there is a paid campground with a boat dock.

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During my stay I went on two different hikes that would challenge me in new ways! I did these hikes on my own with no GPS or phone service. At some point on both hikes I had got lost, felt overwhelmed, ran out of water and was losing daylight. I have a strong sense of direction and knew I was within a couple miles of the farm so I was never too worried. It was more of a feeling like I had bit off more than I could chew.
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The first hike I skated down to 126, hid my board and hiked up the ridge side! It was a super steep climb with no shortage of poison oak. The view overlooked the 126 and Mckenzie River. From there it was go back down through a poison oak cliffside or keep going up through national forest and try and to find the farm. Hours later I eventually hit a logging road which I was familiar with. From there it was only another mile down to the farm.
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The other hike started out at the farm and went up to the same logging road. From there I walked the gravel road for several miles. This logging road started down at the reservoir and wrapped around a ridge climbing for miles before splitting off on to other logging roads. I walked this until the split where I saw some of the biggest trees I have ever seen in Oregon. On the walk back I didn't just want to walk the road so I scampered up the ridge that ran parallel with the road. There I followed a deer trail to the top of the ridge. The deer trail dipped through young trees at the peek. On both sides of the trail it dropped off hundreds of feet down to the logging road on one side and a eventually blue river on the other.



I took this deer trail going along the peek for a bit before I could find a way back down to the road that was not the cliff side. Eventually I got off the deer trail and made a trail of my own. By that time I wanted to be done with the hike. I started sliding down the mountain side grabbing on to roots or whatever I could find. At some points I was sliding on my butt clawing at the eroding mountain side. Once I reached the road I was covered in dirt but I was glad to be on solid ground. From there I started the several mile hike back to the farm.

I will never forget my time in Blue River! There really is so much to explore in this area. I highly recommend visiting!