Some mid-summer days may even qualify as being hot. Religious services are provided to the area by approximately 150 various churches and church organizations, representing most major denominations. Medford is the medical center of southwestern Oregon and northern California with two major hospitals and specialists in every field. A non-profit air ambulance service, Mercy, Flights, serves all of southern Oregon and northern California for a very nominal annual subscription. Oregon boasts an excellent school system with a high level of local control, financed mainly through property taxes.
Schools are plentiful through high school, including a few parochial schools.
The Rogue Community College is a two-year vocational institution located in Grants Pass and in Medford. Southern Oregon University in Ashland functions as a regional liberal arts college and is part of the Oregon State Division of Higher Education. Recreational activities vary from camping at Crater Lake National Park and winter skiing at Mt. Ashland to salmon fishing off the southern Oregon coast, all within two hours driving time from Medford. Mountain lakes offer summer water skiing, fishing, and camping. Fishing throughout the area is excellent, with the mountain lakes open year round.