Emigrant Trail
Emigrant Trail is a State Scenic Byway in Oregon. Within Oregon it covers roughly 30 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Emigrant Trail with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Emigrant Trail is a scenic byway beginning at New Pine Creek, a small community straddling the Oregon-California state line on US Highway 395. From there it connects Oregon's Outback Scenic Byway and Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway to the Modoc Scenic Byway and Shasta Volcanic Scenic Byway just across the border in California. From the Oregon side, the route heads south into the high desert country around Goose Lake, a landscape named for early trapper and explorer Levi Scott and later crossed by expeditions under John C. Fremont and Hudson's Bay Company trader Peter Skene Ogden. The byway runs close to actual remnants of several historic emigrant routes, including the Applegate, Lassen, and Burnett trails, used by 19th-century wagon trains bound for the Willamette Valley and California gold country. The Oregon segment is short compared to the drive's continuation into California, but it sets up the historical framing for the whole corridor: a crossing point between two states' worth of 1800s westward migration.
- New Pine Creek (OR-CA line)
- connects Outback & Volcanic Legacy byways
- Goose Lake
- Applegate, Lassen & Burnett emigrant trails
- John C. Fremont & Peter Skene Ogden history
- US Highway 395
Plan a drive on Emigrant Trail →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along Emigrant Trail
No campgrounds are listed close to Emigrant Trail yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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