Steens Mountain Revisited
It’s always nice when friends stop by. When you are out here in the boon docks, it’s even nicer. Old friends B & B, who we have known since my time at General Cable in Lindsay, Ca. in early 70’s, spent a few days parked next to us here at the refuge. The refuge is very gracious about allowing friends to pay visits and enjoy the hospitality of the facility. We had several meals cooked in our rigs but eaten together in the guest house and hours of great conversation.
So yesterday it was time to take them to the mountain. We started by 9:00 am, drove through Frenchglen, and started up the south end of the 60 mile Steens Mountain Loop. The weather cooperated giving us lots of sunshine and little wind. Light jackets in the morning, t shirts in the afternoon. The south route is quite a bit more challenging due to the steepness, ruts, and rocks, but it is a blast to negotiate. The condition of the road is actually a bit better that last year because many of the holes have been filled in with gravel. Even then the top speed in the section called the Cock’s Comb is a blistering 10-15 mph. The elevation gain, is about 2000 feet in about three miles and the scenery is amaz
ing so everyone in the car is busy looking around.
We made the summit about 2:00pm and spent a couple of hours above 9700 feet with binoculars and cameras being well used. This spot is the highest place in Oregon that you can drive to. Then it was time to continue on around the loop and descent using the north route which is a wide relatively smooth, gravel road. We saw wild horses, deer, but no bighorns. Heading back home on Highway 205 south of Frenchglen we saw a sight that caused us to turn around and go back to see if we had imagined it. But there they were, about a dozen pheasants were perched in a juniper tree, checking things out. ( You can click on th
is picture or any of them and zoom in for a better look.) It surely was an interesting sight.
It’s always nice when friends stop by. When you are out here in the boon docks, it’s even nicer. Old friends B & B, who we have known since my time at General Cable in Lindsay, Ca. in early 70’s, spent a few days parked next to us here at the refuge. The refuge is very gracious about allowing friends to pay visits and enjoy the hospitality of the facility. We had several meals cooked in our rigs but eaten together in the guest house and hours of great conversation.
So yesterday it was time to take them to the mountain. We started by 9:00 am, drove through Frenchglen, and started up the south end of the 60 mile Steens Mountain Loop. The weather cooperated giving us lots of sunshine and little wind. Light jackets in the morning, t shirts in the afternoon. The south route is quite a bit more challenging due to the steepness, ruts, and rocks, but it is a blast to negotiate. The condition of the road is actually a bit better that last year because many of the holes have been filled in with gravel. Even then the top speed in the section called the Cock’s Comb is a blistering 10-15 mph. The elevation gain, is about 2000 feet in about three miles and the scenery is amaz
ing so everyone in the car is busy looking around.We made the summit about 2:00pm and spent a couple of hours above 9700 feet with binoculars and cameras being well used. This spot is the highest place in Oregon that you can drive to. Then it was time to continue on around the loop and descent using the north route which is a wide relatively smooth, gravel road. We saw wild horses, deer, but no bighorns. Heading back home on Highway 205 south of Frenchglen we saw a sight that caused us to turn around and go back to see if we had imagined it. But there they were, about a dozen pheasants were perched in a juniper tree, checking things out. ( You can click on th
is picture or any of them and zoom in for a better look.) It surely was an interesting sight. We arrived home about 6:30pm tired, dusty, and happy.
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