Pilot Rock

As its name suggests, Pilot Rock is the major geological landmark on the Siskiyou Mountain barrier just north of the California-Oregon border. The big rock you see on the skyline as you cruise along Interstate 5 is the core of an ancient volcano. It was an important guidepost when the Pacific Northwest was first being explored.     
         
Hudson's Bay trappers came this way in the early 1820s. Peter Skene Ogden camped within sight of Pilot Rock when his party of explorers crossed the Siskiyou Mountains in 1827. Ewing Young brought herds of cattle this way in 1837. Pilot Rock stood as a landmark for ‘49ers making their way between the California gold fields and the settlements in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
      
Stagecoach travelers and freight wagons jolted along a wagon road that opened over the mountain in 1859. The road was paved in 1913--an 8-foot strip to accommodate the automobile. Named the Pacific Highway in the 1920s, the road was widened to 16-feet. It was re-routed in the 1940s, and replaced by Interstate 5 in the 1960s.  
       
Today a near-constant stream of vehicles crosses the Siskiyou Mountains on Interstate 5, where Pilot Rock remains a silent sentinel overlooking the Rogue Valley.