Watch fish fall from the sky as ODFW stocks Cascade Mountain lakes
Watch as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife uses a helicopter to restock fish in Oregon’s Cascade Mountain lakes.
The High Lakes Recreation Area of Santiam State Forest, including popular Rhody Lake, reopened this month after being closed since the 2020 Labor Day Fires.
The mountain lakes northeast of Lyons and Silver Falls State Park were the final recreation locations in the 47,871 acres forest that had remained closed.
“We focused our rebuilding efforts on highly visited recreation areas, like Shellburg Falls and Butte Creek Falls first, then later on less visited areas including High Lakes,” said Joe Offer with the Oregon Department of Forestry.
Shellburg Falls and Butte Creek Falls reopened in spring 2024.
High Lakes includes Rhody Lake and the pair of Butte Lakes. There are also several trails in the area. Main access to the area is through Butte Creek roads 500 and 800 gates, which are now open.
The main change to the area, other than the burnt landscape, is that overnight camping is no longer allowed at the Rhody Lake recreation site. Previously, there was four drive-in campsites.
“We made the change for two main reasons: lack of infrastructure and fire safety,” Offer said. “There is a vault toilet at Rhody Lake, but no improved campsites or campfire rings. The area still has many dead standing trees and piles of dead trees, so the fire risks are much higher than before the 2020 fires.”
Some of those piles of trees are from ODF’s nearly five-year effort to remove hazardous burnt and dead trees along miles of forest roads throughout the Santiam State Forest.
Officials said visitors need to be weary of fire-killed trees.
“Even though we removed hazard trees near roads there are many snags (dead trees) along the trail system so hikers should be aware of their surroundings especially during weather events like high winds or heavy rain that can bring trees and branches down on trails,” said Chelsey Peters, acting district forester for ODF’s North Cascade District.
Peters said they considered delaying the opening until after fire season but wanted people to have access as soon as possible.
Route to the high lakes
The high lakes are located about an hour northeast of Lyons following winding roads. Although somewhat out of date, a recreation guide to the area can be found at: oregon.gov/odf/recreation/guides/high-lakes-recreation-area-guide.pdf.
The guide includes directions and a trail map.
High fire danger in Santiam State Forest
The Santiam is currently in “high” fire danger and that brings a rather long list of restrictions. Two key “high” fire danger restrictions include:
- Any activity that creates a spark or has the potential to create a spark are only allowed before 1 p.m. or after 8 p.m., which includes use of chainsaws, off-road vehicles, mowing and grinding.
- All vehicles travelling on ODF roads need to have a shovel and gallon of water or working 2.5-pound fire extinguisher or larger.
People are still allowed to have recreational fires during high fire danger but need to have the shovel and water/extinguisher on hand.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at [email protected] or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at oregonoutdoors.bsky.social.
link