Claim OwnershipExplore Oregon Podcast: The state's most beautiful places and biggest issues
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Everything to know about exploring Oregon's best outdoor destinations from the Statesman Journal including where to camp, hike, bike and more.
218 Episodes
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In this episode, host Zach Urness talks with Oregon state climatologist Larry O'Neill about the state's lack of mountain snow and whether it's going to rally this winter. Then, they talk about where 2025 ranked in terms of heat, rainfall and other factors from this past year.
The year 2025 was the third-warmest in records that date back to 1895 and O'Nell talks about why that was the case and other temperature trends seen in Oregon in recent years.
In this episode, host Zach Urness talks about:
The delayed start of winter recreation season, but the encouraging opening of Hoodoo Ski Area
Storm damage and the closures of numerous popular outdoor recreation sites
The most interesting people and places that we covered in 2025
In this reposted episode, host Zach Urness talks about the mythic Grove of Titans, a collection of the largest redwood trees on earth, located just south of the Oregon and California state line.
This podcast, which originally published in 2021, focuses on a recently completed trail system that provides access to the Grove inside northern California's Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Previously, the grove was closed after overuse and crowding brought damage to the trees and surrounding forest.
Zach details what makes the Titans, which rise 320 feet and are 1,500 years old, so unique and special. He also details the history of how the grove was discovered by scientists and big tree hunters in the 1990s and then subsequently damaged by overuse and internet fame.
In this episode, host Zach Urness goes fishing in an unusual place — the bottom of an empty reservoir on a stream that only appears for a few weeks every year.
The place in question is Lookout Point Lake, a reservoir southeast of Eugene just off Highway 58. The reservoir undergoes a deep drawdown each year to help endangered fish, and in the process exposes reservoir bed — and a river — that's been submerged for almost 70 years.
Zach and fish biologist Greg Taylor headed out to fish this "new river" for trout last weekend, in the process hiking past ancient ruins and sweeping mudflats. They talk about where to go, what you can catch and what fishing the "deep drawdown" is all about.
In this episode of the Explore Oregon Podcast, host Zach Urness talks with Debbie Colbert, director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Colbert became the first female director of ODFW, an agency tracing its history back to the 1800s, in May of 2024.
In the podcast, she talked about her background as a field scientist and her first year as director, before jumping into hot-button topics like fee increases for fishing and hunting licenses, the future of Oregon's hatcheries and wild fish, wolf management, whale entanglement and some big wins for like the coastal coho salmon recovery.
In this episode, host Zach Urness reposts his tips and tricks to finding the perfect Christmas tree in Oregon's national forests.
With a $5 permit, you can travel far and wide in the national forests to find a tree to bring home — whether you live in Portland, Salem, Eugene or elsewhere. It's not always as easy as it seems, however.
The podcast breaks down where to get a permit, which forest to target, what elevation to find success and other tips on exploring in the snow.
In this episode, host Zach Urness talks with author Dan Shryock about his book on Oregon's Scenic Bikeways.
Shryock, who wrote "Cycling Across Oregon" in 2024, talks about what inspired the book, his eight favorite rides and what he discovered along the way.
The routes Shryock rode took him through deep forest, over the Cascade Mountains, onto the Oregon Coast and into eastern Oregon canyons.
In this episode, host Zach Urness looks at the curious case of how a non-native fish, walleye, showed up at Lookout Point Reservoir and was then flushed into the Upper Willamette River Basin.
Urness interviews two fish biologists about how walleye, a tasty but controversial fish, were discovered at the reservoir east of Eugene and spawned to become a fishery popular with anglers.
In 2023 and 2024, the walleye were pushed downstream by deep reservoir drawdowns and have been getting caught in new places. Biologists are waiting to see if walleye will establish a new population — which could be bad for endangered salmon and steelhead.
In this episode of the Explore Oregon Podcast, host Zach Urness brings back a second volume of his favorite weird, wild and quirky stories from the first 70 episodes of the podcast.
This edition features:
- Why Hood River was once called "Dog River"
- A ghost wagon rising from the Detroit Lake
- A major drug bust on the Oregon Coast that led to a beautiful collection of trails
- The history of Hoodoo Ski Area
- Why it's dangerous to visit Proposal Rock with a significant other
- Valley of the Giants and the Grove of Titans
Favorite podcast tales volume 1: Betrayal in Grants Pass, a nuke at Cape Kiwanda, D River showdown by Zach Urness / Statesman Journal
Host Zach Urness breaks down how the government shutdown is impacting Oregon's public lands and three other news stories focusing on wildfires, salmon and Douglas fir trees.
Urness talks about the status of national parks and monuments such as Crater Lake and the Painted Hills during the closure, before talking about how bad the 2025 wildfire season was compared to recent years.
Finally, he talks about the rebound of coho salmon on the Oregon Coast and the historic "dieback" of Oregon's Douglas fir trees in southwest Oregon and in the Willamette Valley.
1In this episode, host Zach Urness highlights five Cascade Mountain lakes where you can hike and catch good-sized trout.
This shorter episode includes how to find the lakes, what you can catch there and how to bring them in. The lakes in question are all in the Mount Jefferson and Three Sisters wilderness areas and are home to rainbow, brook and brown trout.
In this episode, host Zach Urness talks with outdoors intern Rose Shimberg about backpacking the 40-mile trail around Mount Hood: the Timberline Trail.
In late August, Shimberg spent three nights backpacking the loop, journeying through terrain including waterfalls, high alpine landscapes, lush forests and deep canyons.
She reports on how to navigate the trail's notorious stream crossings and the status of the "blowdown section" that was closed for years by downed trees. Shimberg also talks about where to find cell service, find an amazing breakfast and spots on the trail to not miss.
In this episode, host Zach Urness talks with an Oregon ranger that saved hundreds of people from the path of the deadly 2020 Labor Day Fires.
Nikki Swanson, Sweet Home district ranger for Willamette National Forest, spurred a major evacuation and closure of the Mount Jefferson Wilderness just days before the Lionshead Fire burned the area and nearly 200,000 acres on Sept. 7-8, 2020. She is credited with saving a number of lives five years ago.
“She is a hero, not properly thanked,” Linn County Commissioner Will Tucker said.
Host Zach Urness talks about plans to reopen beloved Opal Creek, the five year anniversary of the Labor Day Fires and about traveling to Washington's North Cascades National Park.
Earlier this month, Urness reported that Opal Creek was likely to have a limited reopening in 2026 while also detailing the struggle of victims of the Labor Day Fires five years later. Finally, Urness talks about the beauty and challenge of visiting Washington's North Cascades.
In this episode, host Zach Urness and outdoors intern Mariah Johnston talk about how to go whale watching in Depoe Bay to see giant whales — specifically from a boat.
Located along Oregon's central Coast, Depoe Bay is known as the whale watching capital of the Oregon Coast and home to the worlds’ smallest harbor.
Urness and Johnston discuss how to book a $30 to $50 boat tour, avoid sea sickness and experience the giants up close during the summer and fall months.
In this episode, host Zach Urness talks to outdoors intern Rose Shimberg about two of Oregon's subterranean destinations.
Urness and Shimberg talk first about the Lava River Cave, a mile-deep lava tube outside of Bend and the longest in Oregon. They go into the formations you can see and the different ways to reserve a trip to the popular destination.
In the second half, they discuss the Mitchell Point Tunnel, which opened earlier this year to hikers and bikers. Recreating the crown jewel of the historic Columbia River Highway, the tunnel offers stunning views of the Gorge, with multiple hikes nearby to explore.
In this episode, first published in 2021, Zach talks to mountain climb leader Michael Gurley about the best high mountain hikes and climbs that don't require ropes in Oregon.
Zach and Michael pick 10 different mountain peaks that Oregonians in good shape can attempt with a hike or "scramble" climb, provided they've got strong legs, strong lungs and a good plan.
The climbs they cover include multiple routes that rise above 9,000 feet, and two that ascend above 10,000 feet, in mountain ranges in the Cascades, Siskiyou, Elkhorn and Wallowas.
In this episode of the Explore Oregon Podcast, host Zach Urness and outdoors intern Mariah Johnston talk about how to swim, boat and fish in the water of Crater Lake National Park’s for the last time until 2029.
Located in southern Oregon, Crater Lake is home to the deepest lake in the United States at 1,949 feet. Beginning next year, the only trail leading to the water will close for a three year construction project. That makes this August and early September the last time you can take a boat tour, swim or fish in the lake until almost the end of the decade.
Urness and Johnston discuss how to plan the trip and how to experience the deep, blue water in the state's only national park while you still can.
In this episode, host Zach Urness talks about hiking, camping and fishing for rare brown trout at Linton Lake in the Three Sisters Wilderness.
Located a mile off McKenzie Pass Highway 242, Linton Lake features old-growth forest, a place to swim, one of Oregon's tallest waterfalls and some of the most fun hike-in fishing in the state.
Urness talks about the how to make the trip and how to have a good day on the water.
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I enjoy your program. But I hope you look for a different sponsor. After the recent story, your sponsor doesn't look like what it claims to be.