Steens Mountain Excursion

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Chet and I took an overnight trip Thursday and got back Friday evening to the Steens Mountains in Harney County in Southeastern Oregon. It's a place he has been telling me about for a few years. A place he has always wanted to go see. So, we packed up and took off. He called ahead to the Diamond Hotel in Diamond, OR (population 5) for overnight accomodations. The hotel has 5 rooms that share 2 bathrooms, plus 3 rooms with private baths. We opted for the upstairs rooms with shared bath for $69 which included a family style dinner, plus a very lovely continental breakfast. The hotel was full, so everyone introduced themselves and served up dinner together. We had eggplant parmasan, meatballs, caesar salad, hot rolls and strawberries in balsamic vinegar dressing. Oh my, everything was soooo delicious. It was a very interesting group of people too. Very nice. I would recommend it to anyone. This picture is of a round barn built in the 1800's. The ranch hands would break 300 head of horses during the long winters. It is a very unique building with a stone inner wall and an exterior enclosed circle for running the horses.

This is our room in the Diamond Hotel.

This stone building down the road from our hotel, was the towns merc, meeting hall and several other things during the towns heyday.

The Diamond Hotel. The screened in porch is where we all visited and waited for dinner to be served. Very enjoyable.

I spooked a 6 point buck in the yard of our hotel. In the morning there were 6 head of does in the yard. There is no hunting in this valley, so the game are very thick. These guys were in the hay field as we were leaving the next morning.

We spent 4 or 5 hours taking the Steens Mountain loop. I would explain all the geographic history of the place, but basically I just don't want to. Suffice it to say, they are full of glacial gorges. Very outstanding scenery to say the least. I believe this is Little Indian Gorge.

This is actually the first gorge we stopped to see. It is called Kiger Gorge. It's so hard to tell in the photos how far down the valley actually is. I did mention to Chet he would want to be sure he trusted his mate before he stepped out on that ledge!

See what I mean?

You know I trust mine!

That is Alvord Lake and Basin way down below. It is 11 miles long and 6 miles wide and is home to land speed records and wind sailing enthusiasts.

This is looking off north from the same spot.

Chet at the top of the world!

This will give you an idea of where we were and how high!

We were at 9500 feet and Wildhorse Lake was probably around 9000 feet.You can see Borax lake way off in the valley floor.

Big Indian Gorge stretches out behind Chet.

Still at Big Indian Gorge.

You access the scenic loops from the western side of the mountains. This is the eastern side where it is all cliffs. Those highest peaks are where the previous photos were taken. This photo was taken down in the valley floor in the Alvord Desert Basin. We had such a fantastic adventure. I can't wait to go on the next one! FOLLOW YOUR BLISS!