Red Buttes Wilderness, Federal wilderness area in Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California.

Red Buttes Wilderness covers 19,940 acres on the Siskiyou Crest between the Rogue River and Klamath River drainages, about 16,190 acres in California and 3,750 in Oregon. It runs 13 miles long and 6 miles wide, from 2,800 feet in Butte Fork Canyon to 6,740 feet at the east summit of the Red Buttes. Most of its bedrock is ocean-floor sediment several hundred million years old, now schist, quartzite, gneiss and outcrops of white marble.

Native American groups hunted along the Siskiyou Crest from perhaps 8,000 years ago; by late prehistoric times the Dakubetede of the Applegate Valley used the area, sharing it at times with the Shasta, Karok and Takelma. Arrowheads and scrapers from several thousand years of prehistory have been found here. The first non-natives likely crossed during the Siskiyou Mountain gold rush of the early 1850s. The area became Wilderness under the California and Oregon Wilderness Acts of 1984.

The name comes from the reddish-orange rock of the main butte, coloured by high iron and magnesium content. The Dakubetede of the Applegate Valley hunted deer, elk, bighorn sheep and grizzly bear here, sharing the crest at times with the Shasta, Karok and Takelma. Arrowheads, scrapers and other stone tools from several thousand years of prehistory have been found in the area.

Trails include the Azalea Lake, Frog Pond, Cameron Meadows and Butte Fork trails; the Bigfoot Trail crosses the area using the Boundary National Recreation Trail and other seldom-hiked routes. Elevations run from 2,800 feet in Butte Fork Canyon to 6,740 feet at the east summit of the Red Buttes, so expect snow at higher points. A bronze plaque along the Butte Fork Trail marks the grave of three victims of a 1945 plane crash.

The Red Buttes take their name from the reddish-orange rock of the dominant peak on the Siskiyou Crest, colored by high iron and magnesium content. The surrounding sediments began as ocean floor several hundred million years ago and were slowly altered by pressure and heat into schist, quartzite, gneiss and outcrops of white marble.