Just North of Fields is Steens Mountain. I had always assumed it was the “Steens Mountains” as in mountain range, but wikipedia informs me that Steens mountain is really just one giant single mountain. Good to know! Jason and I always end up doing our random Oregon road trips in May, so there’s too much snow up at elevation and the road around Steens mountain is closed, so we’ve never been able to do it. Until now, that is! Obviously it’s the middle of October and it hasn’t snowed yet, so game on! The drive is actually a lot longer than I thought it would be and took most of the day. Be sure you have a full tank of fuel before you start! 😮 Either way, it was incredible. We didn’t get a lot of fall color before we left rainy Washington, and the sagebrush always stays the same color… however up in the mountains the valleys are lined with gold, yellow, orange and red. I love fall. I need a pumpkin spice latte to celebrate!
Eventually we wound our way up to the summit. At the top of Steens Mountain (9734′) is a fun little radio/cell tower station. Another place with randomly excellent service!
Just below the summit (and quite a treacherous hike down!) is Wildhorse lake. There are actually fish in it. Jason spotted some with his binoculars even. I bet no one’s scuba dove that one yet…
One of the most scenic landmarks in the Steens is Kiger Gorge. I can see why it’s so famous! Also, there is a herd of wild mustangs in the area called Kiger mustangs. I want one. They’re just as pretty as the gorge they’re named after.
We finished our loop of Steens Mountain, continued north, and ended up in Burns with an actual luxurious hotel room. There was hot, running water, and a bed that wasn’t tied to a trailer and no dust on anything! Money well spent! After a few hours of watching stupid television shows and even more hours of blissful sleep, we woke up, snagged fuel and a latte and hit the road. The destination was Prineville because there are rocks there.. 😉 but as we came around a corner in the middle of nowhere we see a cloud of dust and cows running away… stampede? no… it was a car accident! 😮 There was a saturn in the ditch that had been rolled and a lady sitting on the ground with blood all over her hand. Crap! So Jason and I pull all the emergency supplied out of the Jeep, wash the blood off.. and then Jason goes for a short unintentional hike to find cell service (didn’t work) while I tried to play “repair the human” and apply bandaids to the leaky spots. I really really need to take a first aid class sometime… She wasn’t hurt too badly aside from a few uncomfortable cuts on her arm and a lot of bruises that I’m sure are very fantastically colored right now. We still never found any cell service so we drove her 45 minutes to meet her boyfriend at his campsite. All is well. Just a not-so-subtle reminder to drive safely out here. The nearest emergency services were at least an hour and a half away. If she’d been seriously injured it would have been a bad deal. Apparently though, she hated that car and really wanted a Toyota Tacoma, so it worked out well for her in the end.
After that exciting afternoon we ended up digging for Thundereggs (similar to a geode only they’re not usually hollow) outside Prineville and camping up there as well. The next day we decided to head home so we could unpack and relax a bit before work, unfortunately, started back up on tuesday.
Overall it was a fantastic vacation of pretty much going wherever we want and doing whatever we want. We found some amazing locations and a lot of places we want to come back and visit. Maybe next year we can do it again!