Steens Mountain

Yes, it's singular (not Mountains). We drove from south of Sun River to Page Springs Campground at the south end of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. We stayed there in September 2009 when it was completely full. This time there was lots of space. The evening we arrived we met a couple, Jeanne and Yo(landa), from the Salem area who were camping with Yo's 13 year old nephews. They had lost their DEET and wanted to know if I had any extra (which I did) which they could buy. The loop road up the Steens is closed till July 1, and there is still lots of snow. The next morning was cloudy and threatening rain so we decided to go over to the east side of the Steens and climb Pike Creek. The hike went up a valley on a very overgrown jeep road. We continued in about 2 and 1/2 miles and finally stopped for lunch when Darwin began to stumble. He's old enough that he has real problems on the scree slopes. We didn't meet a soul. We ate our lunch sitting on the hillside looking up the valley.

As we came down, we saw dust devils over the Alvord Lake and Alvord Desert. We headed first to Alvord Hot Springs for a soak. The springs are on the side of the road and are very warm and alkaline. There were three guys from Portland there who had driven in that day and were going to camp on the Alvord lake bed. Why, I don't know. The wind was blowing, it was really dusty and there is no water. The only redeeming feature is the view. After soaking, we headed to Fields Station for the "best chocolate malt for hundreds of miles." It was wonderful; no milk, just ice cream and flavors and huge. After eating it, we decided to have salad for dinner. Jeanne and Yo, the best aunts boys could have, had taken them to see wild stallions, for hamburgers at Fields Station, to soak in Alvord Hot Springs and around the east and north of the Steens Mountain where they saw wild mountain sheep and lots of other animals. We shared s'mores with them the first night and conversation the second. We exchanged addresses and hope to hook up with them again. The Steens Mountain is a fault uplift structure (gradual on the west side and steep on the east) which rose up in three pieces.

The desert flowers were in full bloom along the hike. It was quite wet in the Malheur Refuge with water coming up to the edge of the road. Everything was in bloom and the Blitzen River was more than bank full.

A view of Steens Mountain from the east side. We have vowed to come back when the Steens loop road is open and we can explore the area again.