Southeastern Oregon Extravaganza--New Pics

So I decided to go back down to the southeast portion of our beautiful state this summer for some backwoods or backdesert exploring last week. I have been down here quite a few times over the years, but have never taken much in the way of photos. Of course, that was before TW came on the scene. Or more accurately, before I came onto the TW scene.

I first came down here in about 1978 on a family trip. My Dad and Uncle no doubt intended it to be a scouting trip for hunting and trapping, so they dragged their whole families along in a couple of truck/camper combos and off we went! I don't remember a whole lot about it but cattle guards, rattlesnakes and dust. But me, my sister and my cousins had a pretty good time careening through the sagebrush.

My Dad was a trapper, and he spent quite a few years down here chasing after coyotes and bobcats in the winter(!). Since he passed on, I have come down a few times just exploring on my own. But I will leave the furbearers to their own devices.

What follows is by no means a comprehensive review of off roading in Lake, Harney, and Malheur Counties. If this is something you choose to do, have caution. This is lonely country. You can expect to see few other travellers, if any, once you get off major through routes or away from campgrounds and some of the other tourist-centric areas. However much of my trip was spent in these more populated spots.

DISCLAIMER: Due to the fire danger in this part of the country, I would not recommend going into the backcountry any more this summer.

A few tips, which many here on TW are probably familiar with.
1. Carry some kind of comms. I recently purchased a Garmin Inreach and paid for a subscription. I texted my wife when making camp out of cell range, which is almost everywhere down here. I also found the Earthmate mapping app to be very useful, although you cant import external files onto it. It does have lots of topo and USGS quads included which you can load onto your device ahead of time, if you have room for them.

2. Carry water and lots of it. I took two seven gallon jugs as well as three cases of bottled water for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, etc.

3. Carry a fire extinguisher or two.

4. Tell someone where you are going, when you plan to be back,etc. This has been discussed quite a bit on TW, so I wont go on about it.

5. Pay attention to private property. OnX or similar will help with this as well as paper maps. And close any gates you go through on public land.

6. Carry two spare tires. I only had one, and I felt naked at times.

7. Plenty of food, first aid kit, and bring you own shade! There aint much of it down there.

8. Don't be a douche and tear shit up, go off marked roads, vandalize old structures or Indian ruins, petroglyphs, etc.

Thanks to @OnHartung'sRoad for the route info on the way he went the previous week. I am not going to post it, so contact him if you are interested. I dont have Gaia or a like app, so I compared his route on Earth with the Garmin app and dropped waypoints ahead of time and I believe I follwed his route exactly.

Well! This is wordy, so let the pictures begin. I am nobody's @turbodb so I apologize for the phone pics.

 

Left home on Thursday morning from the Valley. Stopped off at Dexter State Park for a round of disc golf and hit up a local landmark.

"You mind if we dance with your dates?"
From Dexter I went up over Willamette Pass, then down the 97 to Chiloquin and east to Bly, where I stopped for a burger.

Continuing on through Lakeview out into deep southeast Oregon and into Nevada. I gassed up in the tiny hamlet of Denio to the tune of $4.50 a gallon and turned south to hit US 95 north of Winnemucca and headed north towards the Santa Rosa Mountains.

Bad photo, sorry.
But, Mormon Crickets!


This is headed up Buckskin Gulch Road.

That is the view from the top of the range looking back west.
I went over the top into the drainage of the Little Humboldt River. High mountain prairies.



A nice ride further, about 10 miles, I got to my first campsite. I like having a fire and I have no RTT, so I generally try to get to a campground. I try to choose out of the way spots like this. It was perfect, tucked away in a high canyon on the east side of the Santa Rosa's. There was only one other camper there, a guy in a FJ Cruiser.

I chose a spot at the far end of the camp, so I could listen to music in peace at night around the campfire. Waylon Jennings hit the spot, along with jalapeno cheese dogs roasted over the fire on a willow stick.

The next morning I awoke to raindrops on the tent, so I got up, tore down the tent and made coffee and had some yogurt and a protein bar. My night in Nevada concluded, I retraced my way back to the highway at McDermitt, and fueled up.

 

I'll add more tomorrow, I'm beat.

 

Don't suppose you saw any evidence of the guy who was rescued out there? His jeep was left out there but evidently he was driving off the trail when he got stuck.

 

That's coming later

 

Looks like a great time so far! We stumbled on Mormon crickets last year when we passed through SE Oregon, and again this year on a recent IDBDR trip (not posted yet). Crazy animal, for sure!

 

OK the next place I wanted to visit was the Trout Creek Mtns. This is a small mountain range that parallels the Nevada state line(more or less). Trout Creek, Willow Creek and Whitehorse Creek head in these mountains and run north to dry out on the Alvord Desert. So I headed north again on US 95 to the Whitehorse Ranch road and headed west.


From Whitehorse Ranch it's just a mile or two to Willow Cr. Hot Springs.

A nice little place for a snack, a bath and taking care of a few maintenance items.
Here are the warm and hot springs, a couple campsites, restroom and a visitors log. I draped my tent over these to dry out while I soaked for a few.


Let's see who has signed in.

Well, a poet.

And a comedian.


After letting the tent mostly dry, it was time to air down.
I had scored a set of Staun deflators courtesy of @stiles88 but hadn't really figured out how to use them, so I used the ARB instead. The Stauns are obviously much faster. In any event I too the tires down to 20 lbs.
I didn't really do too much studying on how to best get up into these mountains so I just followed the roads on the Garmin app as best I could.


The road paralleled Willow Cr. for about five miles, climbing gradually till it finally petered out past an old corral. It was mid afternoon by this time, so I turned back and headed for the main road. My main goal for the day was to make it to Steens Mtn. and that was quite a drive so I got to it.
After stopping off for gas and a strawberry milkshake in Fields(and airing back up), I headed north on the blacktop 52 miles to the small burg of Frenchglen. About halfway there I noticed an oncoming car stopped in the road with its hazards on. As I slowed I saw a half dozen fine looking young ladies swarming around the car, a Transit style van pulling a U-Haul trailer, with another car parked behind. A couple girls were darting out of the sagebrush next to the highway. I asked if everything was alright and the lead lady gave me one of these:
and waved me on. There are no rest areas on this highway!
After checking out the Page Springs campground near Frenchglen I decided it was far too hot and crowded there for my tastes, and I started up the Steens Mtn. Loop Road towards some camps far higher in elevation. I settled on Fish Lake campground for two nights, since I wanted to come back down the next day and do some fishing on the Blitzen River. There were a good number of campers there, too, but the tent sites were fairly isolated.

It was sprinkling and promising thunder and lightning when I pulled in, so I got right to it setting up camp.




As I started to walk up to the self pay booth I turned to note which site I was at. Thats when I saw that there was a tag on the post indicating someone had already paid for the site for this night. Hmm, what to do? I got the last spot in the campground, it was raining, nearly dark and the campground up the road was full. I also had a fire started. So I turned back, made supper and sat in my chair waiting for someone to come throw me out. There was no gear in the site, maybe they had a camper or a conversion van or something. Maybe an RTT. As it turned out, no one ever showed up, so they must have bugged out a night early. The next morning I paid for two nights anyhow.
Lying in my tent that night, I heard a great tumult down below the camp. Cheering, laughing. singing and all kinds of hootin' and hollerin'. I figured there must be a dude ranch or something down there. They were having quite a time!
Next morning after a luxurious breakfast of bacon eggs and hashbrowns, it was time to fish! I have never fished on the Blitzen River due to allergies. Nonetheless I suited up, strung up my rod and hiked up the trail from Page Springs, nervously eyeballing the rocks, brush and tall grass for the source of my allergies. I never saw any, but it was nervewracking anyways. The fishing turned out not so bad, as I caught numerous small redbands on grasshoppers. I also hooked one nice one, 12 inches or so, but he went under a rock nearly at my feet and busted off while I was trying to free my line from the rock. No fish pics, sorry I try to get them back into the water quick, especially in hot conditions.


It was now the heat of the day and the bite was off. I had hiked about two miles upstream, so I figured I best get back down to the truck, get some lunch, and go see some more sights. Back at the trailhead was one one of the few deer I saw on my trip.

Practically tame. More to come later!

 

Awesome report! I love this part of Oregon. There are some seriously remote ares in the Steens.

 

The wife and I came across those Mormon crickets last year in western Idaho. There were thousands of them. The road was almost black with them in some areas and when we squished them their buddies would feed on the dead ones.

 

After fishing I headed back up the Loop Road. I should have pulled into camp and made lunch, but I kept on. The first stop I made was Kiger Gorge overlook. A stunning glacial canyon.


That's a looong way down to the floor of the canyon. I wonder if one can hike up from the bottom?
I continued on up the road and saw some horses. I have no way of knowing if they were wild. Probably not, but they were pretty.

At this point, I was nearing the top of Steens Mtn. Loop road. Above timberline. I pulled into the East Rim Overlook.



Thats Alvord Lake down there with the little hamlet of Andrews in the foreground, I believe.
With that sightseeing completed, I started down the south portion of the loop road. It was a real moonscape up high, but I did not stop for pictures of that.



Big Indian Canyon and Little Blitzen Gorge.
I wound my way down down down to the bottom of the mountain and pulled into South Steens Campground to fix myself a bagle and grab a coke. This campground was in a lot better shape than the others as it seems to be pretty new. Not many people in it either. Would be nice in the fall, maybe, but too hot during July. Down the road a ways, I saw some more horses. This is right in the heart of the South Steens Herd Management Area, so maybe these were wild horses.



I drove on out to the highway from here, back to Frenchglen, and up the loop road back to camp. I was surprised to have cell service in my camp. Not much, but enough to check in on TW. I had received a message from @OnHartung'sRoad asking me if I was interested in the route he had done from Fields west towards HartMountain the previous week. I accepted happily, although not really knowing if that was the way I wanted to go. Like I mentioned before, I did not have any kind of mapping app that I could download external maps to. So after researching it a bit, I downloaded Google Earth and was able to open the files and see his route. This wouldn't help me when I was out of service though. So, I meticulously compared his route on Earth with my maps on the Garmin app and dropped in a series of about 12 waypoints that hopefully would allow me to retrace his route. Worked perfectly as it turned out. Off to bed then to the whooping of the dudes down below.

 

I rose early on Sunday morning, about 5:00 am. I decided to go ahead and follow @OnHartung'sRoad 's route. A quick breakfast, coffee and camp teardownand I was on my way. I would need to fill the tank before heading out across the desert. I got to the store at Frenchglen at 7:00 am, read the sign, and found they did not open till 9:00 on Sundays. Crap. Oh well, I had to go back south to Fields anyways. Plenty of gas for that. So I took off, but not before noticing something in the road on the edge of town.

Allergens! Sorry about his luck.
I got to Fields an hour later to find that they don't open till 9:00 either. Half a dozen rigs were lined up at the single pump already. Dammit. I passed the time studying my maps and airing down in the parking lot. When they finally opened, the gas line moved predictably slow. That's when I noticed the non ethanol pump. I made my move, but paid $5.00/GALLON! to avoid the wait. Then I was off. A short distance south on the blacktop, then hit the dirt up to Domingo Pass.

The Garmin app worked really well for me, though I had read some not so kind reviews online.
Continuing west the road was very well maintained. I thought I would be at Hart Mtn. by 3:00! Well, not so much. The first two hours flew by, as did alot of open skies.

By 11:00 I had made it to @OnHartung'sRoad 's campsite. Pretty spartan.

Sadly, I did not find the water bottle he said he had lost. Perhaps one of the many other people out here had. This was the point at which the road, while heading uphill, started to go downhill. Pretty rocky requiring speeds of 5-10 mph. Crossing over the top of a mountain it was time to head down in to the next valley. A slow but very scenic descent.


After exploring this rock garden the road got damn rough heading toward a spring. Not horrible, but this was when I felt two spares would have been wise.

After winding my way around the water hole and through barbwire gate, the road smoothed out a bit. Not much further the road intersected a much better through route, and I opened it up for six or eight miles of flat running.

After another hour or so, I pulled into another spring for a quick bite. I didn't have so much time to spare now, after the slow descent of the mountain a ways back.

Someone had been here.

At my next waypoint/junction I thought for a minute that my map had proved false. There was no junction at the waterhole I passed! I drove a half a mile further, thinking I had fat fingered it, but no road. I circled back and saw that the road did indeed turn off straight through the waterhole. Luckily, there was a road crossing the dam, so I took it and reconnected with the true route. This is where things seriously slowed down. The next seven or so miles the road travelled across what is affectionately known as "scab flats". Straight and flat, but terribly bumpy. Five miles per hour. About an hour and a half later I emerged from the road out onto another through route approaching the Hart Mtn. Antelope Refuge. It was about 2:00 pm. I tevelled south for a ways, and tried to get to the Shirk Ranch. The remnants of an old cattle ranch, most of the buildings are still standing and explorable. Just take your allergy medicine beforehand. Heading west on a side road, I got to Guano Creeek. Then this flashed into my mind.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/lost-in-or-desert-lucky-to-be-alive.621301/
This fellow had his run of bad luck trying to cross the creek somewhere around here. The road went right through the creek and continued on the other side. I could see Shirk Ranch and the next main road not a quarter mile distant. I got out to check the crossing.

Fuck that. I thought this might be the guy's plate frame, but after reading the article, I think this happened a ways to the north. Said it was in a sharp canyon. Where I was was wide open. Still, someone had sunk down and ripped off the frame, probably trying to back out, or being pulled out. There was no other way across the creek, so I had to detour about 25 miles around, down to highway 140, west, then north on the road I could see from the crossing. When I got to Shirk Ranch there were a couple rigs parked there and people poking around, so I continued on. I've seen it before anyhow. Then next two hours were spent slowly ascending Hart Mtn. from the east over roads similar to the ones I was on earlier. I did get to see some of the fine Pronghorn the refuge was made to foster.

They're pretty shy. Sorry again for the poor quality photos.
About 6:00 pm I finally straggled into Hot Springs Campground. I quickly found the most convenient site, set up and ate. Then I strolled down to the springs to relax after a long day of sweatily bouncing along deserted roads, my left arm nicely broiled from hanging it out the window.


The night wouldn't pass real peacefully, however. Two people in a Crosstrek(of course) set up shop right across the creek from where I was camped. I'll call them Whitney and Trisha. They yammered constantly and loudly, Trisha about how she needed more wine, Whitney about how he needed more help setting up their Northface(of course) tent. I think @Itchyfeet knows these people. I attempted to drown them out with Willie Nelson music, but I think it only made them louder. In these situations, I always try to remind myself that these are their public lands too, but damn I hate annoying folks in a setting that calls for if not silence, then a little less screeching about nonsense. It didn't end after bedtime, either. About 1:30 am I was awakened by a dull thudding sound. By the sounds of it and the talk, Whitney was for some reason hitting the ground with the back of a shovel. After 30 minutes or so, it mercifully came to an end. I think they found more wine.

 

Here are some photos I didn't use in the report.
The next day I got in my truck and drove my ass home and got in the shower. The end.

 

You had a long day, my friend! We camped out over two nights on that road and pulled out the telescope on one night until the clouds closed down the show. That place gets dark at night, in fact, Massacre Rim not too far off in the northwest corner of Nevada was just elected as the nation’s largest Dark Sky Sanctuary - meaning it’s one of few of the darkest places in the (civilized) world!

What a great writeup, it would have gotten me to go for a first time trip as anyone else here should. Such a cool place, and its all belongs to us public land owners!!

 

Wow, where was your other campsite? Yeah it was a real marathon. Next time I'll try that Trout Creek country and Oregon Canyon Creek. Just have to do some sleuthing about how to best get up on top.

 

$4.50???!!!! Good grief.

 

It's a one horse town. I paid 5.00 in Fields(non ethanol).

 

Man, that hurts just to think about.

 

Great write up! While most of our (wife and I) excursions are on foot, we may have to head south and stay in the truck. Great pics!

 

Thanks I haven't written that much since high school. One thing I do need is a new camera, though. Phones suck other that the convenience. I also have a couple different point and shoots, but I need something real. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

Amazing!!!! We gotta get down and check out some of these places.