Until a 2020 wildfire burned most of the trees and closed trails, 50,000 people a year hiked to see the Opal Creek Wilderness, once ranked by Audubon magazine with the Grand Canyon as one of the nation’s top 10 “paradises preserved” in the 20th century.
The fabled old-growth forest east of Salem is set to reopen to the public next summer, but what will you find there?
The Beachie Creek Fire of 2020 was ignited by a lightning strike just 2 miles from the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, the old mining camp at Jawbone Flats. The blaze blew up the valley like a volcanic blast, burning 200,000 acres, including the city of Gates.
Today the clear green water in Opal Pool is surrounded by a moonscape of bare rock and snags blown flat by the force of the firestorm…