It’s looking like 2025 is a banner year for photographing fall color in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. I spent a delightful day cruising Aufderheide Memorial Drive, aka West Cascades Scenic Byway, aka Forest Road 19, and found conditions better than I have seen in recent years.
Most of the fall color in western Oregon comes from Bigleaf maple trees (Acer macrophyllum), found from the coast to the crest of the Cascade Mountains. Up in the Cascades, Vine Maple (Acer circinatum) turning brilliant orange and red are the first signs that autumn is on the way. The occasional Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) stands out from the dark conifers with leaves of red or pink.
The 60-mile-long Aufderheide Memorial Drive is a paved, two-lane Forest Service road. You can start the drive from Highway 126 along the McKenzie River, or from Westfir at Highway 58, the Willamette Pass Highway. In Autumn, there can be great fall color along the entire route, but I recommend starting at Westfir and turning around a few miles past Frissell Crossing Campground. Coming from the north, there are many miles where the forest is just starting to recover from the 2020 Labor Day Fires.
For a detailed guide to Aufderheide Drive, see pages 202-204 in my book Photographing Oregon. Note that the mention of Delta Campground and Old Growth Forest no longer applies – both burned in the 2020 wildfire.
You might also be interested in these previous blog posts: https://www.wandersandwonders.com/2020/09/17/top-spots-for-fall-color-in-oregon/ https://www.wandersandwonders.com/2013/10/16/fall-color-photography-in-oregon/
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