Hike #4 - Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge

Endangered blue butterflies, oak forest, wildflowers, and meadowlarks are just a few of the attractions on the best easy hike in the Salem area, Baskett Slough.

Baskett Slough (2,492 acres of farmed fields, rolling oak covered hills, and shallow wetlands) is a bird refuge in the central Willamette Valley. Each fall 22,000 dusky Canada geese fly from Alaska's Copper River delta to winter in the Willamette Valley. Under cooperate agreements with local farmers, fields are planted to provide nutritious grasses preferred by the geese. By resting in undisturbed areas on the refuges, wintering geese replenish their energy reserves required for migrating and nesting. This sanctuary also reduces crop depredation problems on surrounding agricultural lands. This refuge west of Salem welcomes them with diked ponds and unharvested fields of corn, rye grass, and wheat. Not surprisingly, the area has become a hit with other bird species, too. 

A short loop hike here visits a viewpoint and an oak forest. A longer loop to Morgan Lake is open April thru September. Pets and flower picking are banned. Walk up the wide, mowed trail and fork left. Old apple trees, wild rose bushes, and pale blue flax flowers line the path. Expect the chirp of crickets, the hollow coo of mourning doves, and the squawk of ring-neck pheasants. A short way in you'll reach a fork at a pass. To the left is the summit of Mt. Baldy, with a view across the Willamette Valley's patchwork of farms to the rumpled green Coast Range. Take the right-hand fork to find the mowed loop trail around Baskett Butte and into an oak forest. Beware of the abundant, triple-leaved poison oak plants masquerading as tree seedlings here. Historically, oak savanna was the primary habitat type occurring on uplands of the Willamette Valley. The cavities of large Oregon white oak trees provide vital nest sites for cavity nesting birds such as the acorn woodpecker and white breasted nuthatch. At the 1-mile mark you reach a T-shaped junction. To the right is the quick route back to your car. Turn left for the longer loop, open from May through September. This path descends to a junction at the site of an old barn. Follow trail signs to the right, along Morgan Lake, and back along a service road to end the loop at the old barn junction. Along the way look for redwing blackbirds perched on cattails, polliwogs in the ditches, and beaver-like nutria in the ponds.

This Fender's blue butterfly was once thought to be extinct. One of the world's largest population of this tiny butterfly is found on Baskett Butte at Baskett Slough.