Table Rocks
Central Point
Two great flat-topped mesas, Upper and Lower Table Rock, rise about 800 feet straight out of the Rogue Valley floor north of Medford, their horseshoe shapes visible for miles. A pair of well-loved trails climbs each one through oak woodland to a broad, open summit with long views across southern Oregon to Mount McLoughlin.
The Table Rocks reward a closer look. The flat tops are capped in hard volcanic rock, and in the shallow pools that form up there each spring grows a small white wildflower that exists nowhere else on Earth. These twin landmarks have also stood at the center of the region's human story for thousands of years.
Learn about Table Rocks
The story of the Table Rocks
The Table Rocks were the heart of the homeland of the Takelma people, who lived in the Rogue Valley for thousands of years. The rocks were a landmark, a gathering place, and a place of deep meaning long before settlers arrived.
That changed fast with the gold rush of the 1850s. In 1851 U.S. Army soldiers under Major Philip Kearny attacked a Takelma group near Lower Table Rock, part of the violence that became known as the Rogue River Wars.
In September 1853, in the shadow of the rocks, Takelma leaders signed the Table Rock Treaty with Joel Palmer and Joseph Lane, ceding some 2,500 square miles of their country. A short-lived reservation was set aside near the rocks, but the peace did not hold. In the winter of 1856 the surviving Native people of the valley were marched more than 250 miles north to the Grand Ronde Reservation. The Table Rocks are, in that sense, a place of both beauty and loss, and worth walking with that history in mind.
How the Table Rocks formed
The flat tops are the key to the whole story. About seven million years ago, a river of andesite lava flowed down out of the hills, cited as coming from Olson Mountain near present-day Lost Creek Lake, and hardened into a tough, erosion-resistant cap across the valley floor.
Everything around that cap has been wearing away ever since. The soft ground eroded down while the lava-capped areas held firm, until what had once been low ground stood high above the valley. Geologists call it inverted topography: the mesas are essentially the shape of an ancient valley bottom, now standing 800 feet in the air. Their curving, horseshoe outlines trace the old path of that lava flow.
The wildflower found nowhere else
Because the andesite cap does not let water through, shallow vernal pools form on the mesa tops through the wet months and slowly dry as spring warms. Around the edges of those pools grows the dwarf woolly meadowfoam, a low white-flowered plant that is found on these two rocks and nowhere else in the world. It blooms for only about ten days in April, a tiny, fleeting show worth timing a visit around.
The pools hold another rarity: vernal pool fairy shrimp, a threatened creature that hatches, lives, and lays its eggs in these temporary waters before they vanish for the year. All told the Table Rocks support hundreds of plant species and more than two hundred kinds of wildflower, and the spring bloom across the summit grasslands can be spectacular.
Look up as well. The open mesa tops and cliff edges are good country for raptors, with hawks and turkey vultures riding the updrafts along the rim.
Season by season
Spring is the season the Table Rocks are famous for: the vernal pools brim, the meadowfoam and hundreds of other wildflowers bloom across the tops, and the grasslands are green. Aim for April if you can.
Summer turns the valley hot and the grasses gold. The trails are still fine early in the day, but there is little shade up top, so go in the cool of the morning and carry water.
Fall is quiet and clear, an easy-going hike with long views once the heat breaks.
Winter greens everything up and refills the pools, though the trails can be muddy after rain. On a bright winter day the snow-capped Cascades make a fine backdrop from the summit.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Central Point
The rocks sit in the heart of the Rogue Valley, minutes from Medford and Central Point. The trailheads are day-use only, so plan to stay in one of the valley towns nearby.
Historic Jacksonville, a preserved gold-rush town and National Historic Landmark, lies just southwest, its brick main street lined with 1880s storefronts. Farther south, Ashland is home to the long-running Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Rogue River itself threads the whole valley for fishing, rafting, and riverside walks.