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Welcome to Ashland Trails

AshlandTrails.com is a local guide to local trails and other local outdoor adventures. Did I mention this is local? The map below has every trail – I know, maybe it’s a little too much. But click around on there, you might like it! The dropdown menus above link to individual trail pages – there is a lot more information there. Distances and elevations and dog walking projections. Specific maps to each trail, and other special insights. And just enough photos to give you a feel for the trail.The videos on the right give a quick preview of each trail – they are the best. Depending upon the trail, they are 3 to 7 minute videos of each trail including maps, parking tips, drone video, and tricky trail navigating suggestions. Did I mention that they are the best? Second best are the trail pages. Each hike and video connects to it’s own page.

Trail of the Week

Mar 19, 2024 - Tue
Ashland US
Wind 11 mph, W
Pressure 1.02 bar
29°F
scattered clouds
Humidity 82%
Clouds 34%
tue03/19 wed03/20 thu03/21 fri03/22 sat03/23
38/39°F
38/26°F
34/25°F
45/43°F
35/25°F

28 comments

  • Hi Jim,

    Appreciate this resource. Thank you so much for making it easy to explore ashland and it’s natural surroundings.

  • Do you have suggestions of places to hike in and around Ashland now that are not muddy? Thanks!

  • Hey There,

    Do you mind if we add your site on to our website? It’s part of our exploring Ashland.

    Thanks,
    Ben

    • jim falkenstein

      Absolutely Ben! That would be pretty cool. I can return the favor by linking to your site on my page as well. I’ll stop in one day soon and we can chat.
      Jim

      • Thanks, Jim for the book, it’s fantastic! In that case your next lunch is on me, see you soon! Ben

  • Thanks Jim,
    Great feed to the hike today I think I will visit Mike at Ashland Outdoors.
    Mark

  • Amazing site Jim – but you already know that. Any chance of a list of trails for people with bad knees or otherwise limited mobility? Rocky and irregular surfaces, and going down significant slopes (I guess there is no way to go up without going down) are a challenge for me – and others. thanks again!

  • Cool site, next time I am in OR I will hit you up…

    Thanks

  • I’ve been an avid hiker for the past couple years, but lately i’ve been trying to get my dad to hike with me. Due to his age and weight, it was tough for a bit. But it’s been about a year since i started draggin him out with me and he has made great strides. He watches a lot of Jim’s videos, hes a full on hiking addict now.

    We skim thru Jim’s videos to find hikes we haven’t done yet. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have found your Youtube and website. Theres certain places I never would have thought to go before. So sincerely from Kevin and Chris, Thank you!

    I hope to see you on the trail someday

  • Watha Dubonnet (Olson)

    LOL – This is a great website. I am approaching seventy years of age and have been in this area fifty years. Compared to today, back in the late sixties and seventies it was as if all of us had this valley to ourselves for hiking, skiing and biking. Mountain biking was just taking off back then, and that was before “rock shox.” LOL Anyway, there was a bunch of us making trail, usually out of hiking trails. We had been up on the mountain for sometime and I was late for something. I jumped on my white Bianci prototype for women and blasted down the trail. And that is how “White Rabbit” got its name. LOL Whether you believe it or not, the other names consistent with the “Alice In Wonderland” book came later when they formerly named the trails. LOL The older I get the better I was. But I could traverse really well riding my back brake.

  • Thank You Jim for your incredibly valuable maps. My cousin and I along with her Russian husky moved here recently from Marin and have been very gratefully exploring these beautiful local trails 🙏

  • I was a wildland firefighter/fire manager for 30 years. I really liked your evacuation route scheme. This should be on the city website. While working on the fireline, I had to abide by the 10 standard firefighting orders which included not only knowing escape routes but where safety zones of cleared vegetation were. We would go to those pre-designated zones if we were in danger. The zones were big enough so we could deploy our fire shelters–small tents of fire resistant material. I think it would be good to include not only escape (evacuation) routes but the location of safety zones within cities–like large parking lots, parks, etc. where people could go if they can’t get out of town or are forced to flee on foot. I saw that some people during the Paradise Fire did this. I hope, though, we never get to the point where each of us as civilians has to carry a fire shelter. Thanks for your pro-active work.

    • Mary! I like the phrase “safety zones.” I’m going to try and follow up with the city and push them for better information and a better plan (not holding my breath honestly) but I think getting some designated “safety zones” should be low hanging fruit as they say.
      Thanks,
      jim

  • Hi Jim,
    Yesterday we drove the roads that you suggested in your evacuation video so that we are now familiar with them in case of an emergency and then hiked at Emigrant Lake. Thank you so much for your evacuation video. We have shared it with friends and neighbors. Also, we have your Ashland Trails book and have enjoyed exploring the trails. Wendy and Steve

    • Thanks Wendy and Steve, that’s so nice to hear. I hope to add more info about fire evacuation to this site, and with the city.
      jim

  • So grateful to have found this site! Thank you for the work you’re doing!

  • Hey. Thanks for getting owners of private property upon which some trails in the watershed to close their trails (specifically Moai and Mystical.) Private property owners allow people to use these trails with an understanding that the routes won’t be “advertised.” Some or the trails you even admit may be illegal, put apparently do not care to check.

    It’s pretty irresponsible of you to not check with property owners, information that is readily available in the Internet before you suggested people use those trails. Property rights are one of the basic principals on which America was built. Why do you hate America?

    • lmao cry about it ancap, land is free. i’m sure our hillfolk overlords can handle a few poors walking through the woods occasionally.

  • James Stephens

    I found you site, watched a few videos, and have a few thoughts…

    First, the hike videos with the maps, drone videos, and your driving/walking and narration are quite amazing and impressive. I have lived and hiked in Ashland and surrounding areas for nearly 40 years and I know many of the trails you cover. Your site and resources are wonderfully helpful in finding good hikes and how to get to them.

    I must admit that I feel protective of our public lands and the natural resources they contain. I see a lot of destructive behavior : dumping, littering, mud bogging, etc. along many woodland roads, including in beautiful and sensitive areas like meadows and streams. It’s very disheartening. The trails you cover are beyond roads and I never see much abuse there, I guess because the people who have the interest and take the effort to hike tend to care about the environment. I do wonder if making it easier and more attractive to find and visit trails like you are doing increases pressure on these places that include some pristine land. In one video I watched, you acknowledge this
    possibility.

    I’m not sure what the right ethic is here but I would offer a couple of suggestions that Would make me feel more positive about your rather impressive efforts: 1. Include a tab with a page or two about good stewardship and hiker ethics. 2. Include a tab and information about yourself and the purpose of the site; what are your motives and what are the benefits. 3. Leave the drone at home. I have not yet seen a drone while enjoying a getaway in nature and I hope not to. We are surrounded by gadgets and technology in our lives and I like the idea of natural places being places of solitude, quiet, and minimal tech intrusion. I found your drone footage to be interesting and helpful in the trail videos but I hope drones never become a thing in the woods and much less on hiking trails, therefore I would rather do without this feature.

    • Thanks for your thoughts James!

      I love your “how to be a good hiker” page idea. You make other good points. 20 years ago when I first started exploring this area there was a dearth of helpful trail information outside of Lithia Park and Sullivan’s book. Things have improved since then, but it started my journey to find, map, record, and share the many trails in the area.

  • I also recommend areas off Indian Memorial Road for winter and other off season walking.
    1. Cove Creek Road. Past the gate is a road for walking quite a ways in a couple of directions. The gate is +- two miles up the road, which starts just past mile seven on IM Rd (at the hairpin turn).
    This area (section 3) is in the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument expansion area.
    The gate is open one month in October for hunters (go figure). Just past a creek on the walk, is a spit where you can walk either way on the roads. If you stay to the right, the road again splits, with the left one going only a short way up Dosier Creek to a gate. Nice forest and creek there. Staying to the right takes you on a nice uphill walk, with forest and previously cleared areas growing back.

    2. What I call Newell’ s Nob. (Jimm Meisner can show you this, too) . On Shale City Road, past the views looking down on Willow-Witt Ranch, is a turnoff to the left, – Lake Creek Road 7.2. Then there is a turnoff to the left, road labeled 3.4. Going up this road offers a number of hiking places past road berms, two of them going up, eventually cross-country, to Newell’s Nob. This is a volcanic plug at over 5200′ with a great view, especially to the south. Ii is a nice spot for wildflowers in May and June.
    It is also in the extension to the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument.

    I use these areas instead of the Ashland watershed area, which I find too crowded these days.

    3. Greensprings loop trail and surroundings. Less than 20 miles from Ashland.

    Check out my Facebook page for photo albums on this area. Hundreds of photos!

    • Holy Moly Diane that is all fantastic info! I am going to coax Jimm into taking me up to Newell’s Nob and I will explore the other areas. I am about to friend request you on facebook.

      Jim

  • There are several trails at Emigrant Lake that that you don’t have listed. All of them are on public land. The county owns a strip of land around the entire lake. First I will mention the trails on the peninsula that divides Emigrant Lake into 2 halves. The peninsula has a parking area and restroom on each side of it: Greensprings spur and Songer Wayside. There are 3 parallel trails that go from the parking lot on Greensprings spur road to a small butte at the end of the peninsula (which has gigantic boulders and great 360 degree view). The main trail starts behind the restroom and goes uphill. It is 1.3 miles to the small butte (not the large butte near the restroom). Or, from Songer you can follow the lake around to the left and get to the same butte (again 1.3 miles).
    Also from Greensprings spur there is a trail that goes to the left (south) of the parking lot for about 1.4 miles to Old 99. Then there is a trail that goes along the whole north side of the lake accessed from the road that starts near where Ashland Creek enters the lake. (I have improved and maintained these trails).

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