Blue Water, Blue Water, Dave and I are chanting this as we prepare our kayaks for a day trip to Waldo Lake. Waldo is about a 30 mile drive from Oakridge heading East on Oregon Hwy 58.

Waldo Lake in Oregon

Mid August thru October is our favorite time to paddle Waldo Lake as the mosquitoes are pretty much gone by that time, June thru early August would probably leave us both anemic, although we’ve done it in the past with lots of mosquito spray and staying in motion to keep those pesky little biters away.

Waldo is one of the most pure lakes you’ll find to paddle, it’s the second largest natural lake in Oregon with depths up to 420 ft and visibility as deep as 100 ft. The scenery is beautiful when you get out on the lake, motors are limited to electric motors only so it’s a relaxing and enjoyable experience. The water is so blue and clear there are places that you can see the bottom. There is much to explore as we paddle the lake, we start at the North Waldo campground and paddle to our favorite spot which is a little sandy beach inlet and have a snack, this is on the side of the lake that had a forest fire in the mid 90′s caused by a lightning strike, Dave worked on the Waldo Lake fire and we used some of the money he earned from that fire to buy these kayaks, so it’s important to us to bring them back to Waldo.

There are places you can pack in your gear and camp around the lake giving the opportunity to explore the shoreline, or if you don’t like to rough it there are three established campgrounds. Fishing isn’t really something you’ll want to do as this lake isn’t stocked, years ago it was but this was stopped to keep it’s waters pure. Waldo Lake is surrounded on three sides by the Waldo Lake Wilderness, there are hiking trails and bicycling trails around the lake. Across the lake from where we launch is the gauging station which is fun to hike back into. If you launch from Shadow Bay a fun paddle is to the Klovdahl Dam that was built in the early 1900′s as a project to provide irrigation and hydropower to the Willamette Valley this project was abandoned in 1914 before it was completed. Whether you are camping, hiking, bicycling, swimming, sailing or paddling Waldo Lake offers a rich, fun experience for the entire family.

There are many sites on the internet that have blogged their Waldo Lake experiences, and much historical information to be found.

Here are a couple:

http://www.lakelubbers.com/waldo-lake-456/

http://www.northwestpaddling.com/2009/09/22/waldo-lake-late-summer-kayak-camping/

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a908362217&db=all

Here is a link to Oregon River Sports in Eugene that may provide more information about white water kayaking:

http://www.oregonriversports.com/events.html

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