Willow Witt Ranch Trails

The Willow Witt Ranch Trails include a 2 mile interpretive trail as well as a 3 mile 5K race loop. Also, lot’s of cool ranch camping activities.

Driving

– This 35 minute drive starts south through town on Main Street/Siskiyou towards the University. Turn left on Ashland Street towards Interstate 5. Don’t get on the Interstate! Go over it! The road sweeps to the right and you will hit an intersection for Dead Indian Memorial Road. Turn left and you’ll head uphill into the mountains for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye to your left for the Forest Service sign saying Shale City Road and Grizzly Peak. Left on that asphalt road for a few miles and Forest Service sign will point left to Grizzly Peak – Pass That! 50 yards later is a Willow Witt Ranch sign on your right. Turn right. Drive that country road, maybe listen to some old John Denver music, and you’ll need to get out – open a gate – drive through – and close it, just like a ranch hand. Then drive up to the farm and park.

Parking

– A dozen or so dirt spots in front of the main farm house/office.

The Trail

– First of all remember… this is a private ranch. They are just super amazing people for even letting people up here! It’s open from 11 AM to 4 PM and there are no dogs allowed. Respect that… Respect it! And they ask for a $5 donation so if you have a fiver in the glove box, I think it’s totally worth it.

I’m going to focus on the 2 plus mile interpretive trail, but there is a 5K (3.1 mile) race worth of trails up here and more. Why yes, they do host a yearly 5K race to benefit the turtles. Turtles? That’s right, let’s go see those things.
From the parking area walk back down the road you drove in on for a hundred yards and to the right there will be a trail marked headed for the campgrounds. That’s your trail. Head along that and you will skirt along the campgrounds and yurts and fire pits and gathering areas. In about a half mile you will come across the turtle pond viewing area. It’s a full blown interpretive nature trail experience. There are brochures and info up there and it’s pretty interesting native habitat stuff.
After the turtle pond the trail continues to loop around the main meadow above the farm. There are a number of side trails that they seem to be adding so you can get confused but they usually have a WWR sign (Willow Witt Ranch, get it?) for this main interpretive trail. The trail becomes a dirt ATV road towards the end and then drops down, above the farm, and into the top of the parking area.

It’s a working ranch and summer camp and cabin rental area… there’s a lot going on up here so check in to the Farm Store and look at all the other trail maps and stuff they have laying around.