Sometimes when you look at snowfall totals they seem so outrageous you’re not quite sure if you believe them and it doesn’t matter if they’re from an official source or not. That’s kind of the feeling we get when we read that Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park gets up to 500 inches of snow each winter. Other parts of the Cascade Mountains might not get quite that much but Government Camp, on the north end of the Cascades but still in Oregon, averages 275 inches of snow. Crater Lake’s 500 inches is a whopping 41.6 feet, while the Government Camp snowfall is 22.9 feet. It’s almost unfathomable. Then we experienced it. We’re believers. We’ve enjoyed snowmobiling all over Oregon, from those major snowfalls of wet, heavy snow in the western part of the state to the light, dry powder you find in the eastern portion of the state. So not only do you have different riding areas, but different kinds of snow, too. Moist winter storms come off the Pacific Ocean and hit the higher elevations of the Cascade Mountains, the first major mountain range the storms hit as they march westward, but “dry” out a little as they go farther west to the Blue Mountains and Seven Devils. Western Oregon may have the bragging rights when it comes to snowfall, but even farther west, 100-200 inches of snow falls every winter, depending on where you’re riding. The Oregon State Snowmobile Association has done a great job of providing information on all the state’s riding areas, including putting trail maps onto its website (www.oregonsnow.org). Each map details where trailheads and parking areas are, as well as key highways to access the riding areas. While Oregon has got an extensive trail system that cover the state’s more famous mountainous regions, there are a couple of lesser known spots worth mentioning. First is a small riding area in southwest Oregon near Page Mountain. There aren’t any groomed trails here but you can play on forest roads and off trail. The area is served by the Page Mountain Sno Park on Happy Camp Road. The other small riding area is in the Steen Mountains on the other side of the state in southeast Oregon. The BLM administers this site and is the best source of information on riding there. Log on to www.blm.gov and click on Oregon and then head to the Burns District. There are special restrictions for snowmobiling in the Steens.