Upper & Lower Table Rocks

Author's Comments

The Table Rocks do not announce themselves the way other landmarks do. They simply rise from the valley floor, two flat-topped mesas holding their shape against the Siskiyous, and you have to climb to understand what they are. April is the month. Late April specifically, when the dwarf woolly meadowfoam comes in across the summit plateaus in pale yellow drifts so dense and so low to the ground that from a distance it reads almost like snow. The vernal pools are still holding water then, brief shallow worlds that exist for a few weeks each year and then vanish. I find myself drawn to the detail shots more than the wide views when the meadowfoam is at peak, even though the wide views are what brought me up. The flowers are tiny. The plateau is enormous. There is something about that scale relationship that I have not quite solved photographically and keep returning to work on. The climb is straightforward but exposed. Bring water, bring a hat, and time your ascent so you reach the summit in the last hour before sunset. Mount McLoughlin holds light longer than you expect from this angle, and the Rogue Valley below goes through a slow shift from green to gold to lavender as the sun drops behind the Siskiyous. The descent in fading light requires some attention. I usually start down before I want to. These are not famous mesas. You will likely have the summit largely to yourself even in peak bloom, which is part of why I keep coming back. The Pacific Northwest has louder places. This one rewards a quieter kind of looking.

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