Steens Mountain & the Alvord Desert

For memorial day weekend, Mike & I ventured to the far south eastern corner of Oregon. A place we both always talked about exploring, but seemingly never had the time. The drive from Sisters was close to 4 hours, with a brief stop in Burns for gas and groceries. We camped at the South Steens Campground which is a first-come/first-serve campground. There was no issue finding a site so we set up shop. The first day there we hiked the Little Blitzen Trail, and we were not prepared for the first stream crossing. We decided to turn back as it was getting late and regroup the next day. On Saturday we decided rather than hiking we wanted to drive to the Alvord Desert and check out the much talked about hot springs. It was a two hour drive from the campground to the desert, but I highly recommend it. We stopped in Field, Oregon for gas and a beer then headed to the soaking tub. It was more crowded than usual due to the holiday weekend and a mini-Burning man festival going on in the desert. The hot springs were great though, exactly what I needed to clean up. For our last day, we hiked a portion of the Big Indian Gorge trail, this is an 16 mile roundtrip hike with 3 stream crossings, and in May, the streams are moving fast. We traversed two streams, saw an abandoned cabin and took in the vast gorge views. Because we were pressed for time we were not able to finish the hike to the head wall. We turned around near mile marker 4-5.

A few things to note, the scenic road to the top of Steens Mountain was closed, so we were not able to drive up there. I was told by some campers that the road typically stays closed until July. All in all this was an amazing journey across the state. We saw wild horses, cows for days, a variety of birds at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a coyote, and did I mention cows? Enjoy the pictures!

Tory