Stark red ridges, shimmering green lakes, and the strange plants of the Klamath Mountains highlight this remote but popular area. Pick up a Kalmiopsis Wilderness map at a Forest Service station, and remember that winter snows usually close the trails here until May. Although the 2002 Biscuit Fire overswept this entire region, here it mostly burned brush, leaving large trees intact.

Kalmiopsis blooms

From the Highway 101 bridge . . .

If you have time for a side trip—or if your goal is a viewpoint—turn right and . . .

To find another lake nearby,  . . .

Look here for struggling Kalmiopsis shrubs, reduced to a mat by winter’s snowstorms and summer’s baking sun. In a saddle at the 4-mile mark, a side trail to the right leads 0.1 mile steeply down to Salamander Lake, a shallow, brush-rimmed lake full of yellow-blooming lilypads.

This chapter is an excerpt from 100 Hikes : Oregon Coast