My husband has always wanted to have the Griswold family experience of hiking through the woods and cutting down his own Christmas tree, all while we are shivering with possible frostbite. Well, this year, he got his wish. . . mostly. While we didn’t encounter any snow or get frostbite, we did get to hike into the woods and cut down our own Christmas tree! Thankfully it was pretty nice weather. . . a little rain, but not freezing! What made it even better was that we only paid $5 to be able to do this!! Forget spending $40+ for your real Christmas tree!!
If you live in Oregon all you have to do is go to your local BLM (Bureau of Land Management), sign a form saying you will only cut down a tree less than 12 ft tall, with a smaller than 6-inch trunk…and a lot of other ‘Do’s and Don’ts’. You cannot cut a tree down in the Oregon National Forest with this tag. To do that, you have to go to one of the Ranger Stations to obtain those permissions. BLM and the National Forest are not the same thing!
We chose to go out near Steamboat Creek on one of the BLM roads. We hiked a good little ways (on a path) to make sure we got the ‘perfect’ tree. One interesting thing we kept seeing was that we would find a ‘perfectly’ shaped tree, only to find that it was actually two trees growing side-by-side. You would think hiking in the woods, a tree would be an easy thing to find. Funny how nature doesn’t always adhere to the rules of the perfectly shaped Christmas tree!
Thankfully we had extra hands to help take pictures and tie/haul the tree back to the car! A big thanks to my nephew, niece, and her boyfriend for helping make our experience more memorable! This is a really great family experience! We have decided we will definitely be doing this again next year.
On the drive to/from, we made a few scenic stops. We found a couple of ‘waterfalls’, which were actually areas of run-off from all the rain, but they were beautiful none the less!
We hope you enjoy watching our little adventure!
Health and Blessings,
Amanda