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Virtual Guidebook to Mount Shasta and the Klamath-Trinity Mountains
G-O (Gasquet-Orleans) Road
Six Rivers National Forest California
The G-O Road was built by the US Forest Service to connect the Smith River near Gasquet with the middle stretch of the Klamath River near Orleans. Environmentalists viewed it as a giant pipe designed to suck timber from the interior to the idle mills on the coast. It is surprising to find such a heavy-duty road in a remote mountainous area, particularly since it is broken in the middle. After a long controversy the Siskiyou Wilderness Area was created to forever block its completion.
Despite much evidence of logging and fires, the G-O road is a wonderful drive, following ridges higher and higher into the heart of the mountains. There is still some big timber left, and a great diversity of tree species. A trail connects its south end, near Elk Valley, to its north segment, near Doctor Rock.
 | Rhododendrons in the forest along the G-O Road in the Siskiyou Mountains (June 30, 2009) | |
 | A typical scene along the south portion of the Gasquet-Orleans (G-O) Road, a major logging artery eventually left incomplete to save the forests (June 30, 2009) | |
 | Though mostly logged and much of it burned, patches of magnificent forest can be found along the G-O Road between Orelans and Elk Valley (June 30, 2009) | |
 | An expansive view over Blue Creek to the ocean from the high point of the south G-O Road (June 30, 2009) | |
 | High in the watershed of Dillon Creek, one of the largest blocks of lowland forest in the Klamath Mountains despite extensive fires (June 30, 2009) | |
 | A burned forest near Elk Valley at the north end of the southern segment of the G-O Road (June 30, 2009) | |