I expect you could visit the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness in WA and experience a lot of solitude almost everywhere you went, even at the "height of the season". In OR the wilderness with the fewest visits and nice empty trails would be the North Fork John Day Widerness.

In OR/WA the trick in finding the best solitude is to get further away from the coastal population centers by going east of the Cascades. Even hiking on the east side of the Cascades themselves is a decent strategy.

Another good trick is to visit just slightly out of season. In August in OR/WA everyone who hikes is out hiking. That's when you need to get as far in from a road as you can. In June, the east side is getting opened up, there aren't many hikers out yet and you can find solitude even when you camp and day hike out there.

Most of WA's wilderness (of which I am quite envious, btw) is located in the Cascades and the Olympics and therefore not that far from Seattle-Tacoma and all those people. By contrast, in OR we have a number of small eastern wilderness areas that are infrequently visited: Mill Creek, Strawberry Mt, Steens Mt., N. Fork John Day, Monument Rock. Down south we have the Kalmiopsis, Gearhart Mt., Rogue-Umpqua and Red Buttes.

If you just shake off the desire for jaw-droppingly FABULOUS SCENERY, like you see in calendar photos, then you can find some real beauty spots on a smaller, more intimate scale and have them all to yourself 90% of the time.

One last hint: on the east side of the Cascades (or anywhere in the Great Basin), if you are car-camping, always look for a campsite by a creek rather than by a lake. Lakes draw fisher-folk, swimmers, boaters and almost all the local population. Camps by creeks or rivers are much less crowded.

There. I've given away at least half my secrets for dodging the crowds. (The other half will die with me.) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />