Warm Springs Reservation: Bears, Wild Horses, & more...

Wandering around the Warm Springs Reservation with the boys

Wild horses framed by 10,400+ Mt. Jefferson

Our journey began on the right of the map coming from Hwy 26. The original goal was to get the kids up to the highest point in Wasco County. 

Worth noting here is what comprises the Federated Tribes of Warm Springs. The tribe was formed in 1937 by the joining of three bands. The Wasco band lived along the Columbia River and were fishermen. Their location offered them the opportunity for great trade. The Paiutes were a high plains band existed more in southeast Oregon hunting big game. The Warm Springs band lived along the tributaries of the Columbia River building clever structures to catch salmon as they migrated over waterfalls. The bands all spoke different languages and had different ways of living.You could only imagine how difficult that must have been for them when the U.S. Government effectively forces them to all occupy the same space.

Back to the trip...

Skipping stones in Mill Creek at camp.

We drove in a long way from Hwy 26 with some cool vistas along the way. The road had some abandoned vehicles. 

We spun out of control and landed in a trench (ok not really)

Moments before the wild horses dashed in front of us.

After effectively being forced out of their way of living, the young tribe began getting into industry to make their lives more sustainable. Sometime after WWII and into the mid-60's a boom of timber occurred for the tribe. What is now called Old Mill Camp is littered with stories of that era. Everywhere you look in the ghost town, scattered over many acres, you'll find trucks, cables, structures, and various equipment representing the tribes' significant investment in the industry. This is where we camped.

Remnants of Old Mill Camp

Tree gutted for industrialized use.

Boys relaxing at camp

Floating Mill Creek.

Sunset over Mill Creek.

Day two found us improvising. A ton of bugs at Blue Lake meant that we were not going to try the scale Olallie Butte to the Wasco County High Point. We instead went to Lookout Butte where the views were great and the elevation gain was very manageable for young kids.

Chucky with Mt. Hood in background from Lookout Butte.

Mt. Hood from Lookout Butte.

Mt. Jefferson left & Olallie Butte right.

Olallie Butte from Lookout Butte.

Inside the shell of a once great fir tree.

Hike Configuration: Various jaunts from car, climb up Lookout Butte Blaze: all x-country

Start Elevation: 5,114 feet Elevation Gain: 207 feet

Hike Rating: Moderate, bushwhacking

Trail Condition: No trail

Starting Point: North side of Lookout Butte

Trail Traffic: Saw NO one else

Access: I did not check with tribe like I should have. I educated myself later for an expedition in 2013 of Olallie Butte . Passing through the reservation is okay, but camping is only allowed (with a fishing permit available from the tribe) at Trout Lake which is located on the southeast side of Olallie Butte. DO NOT camp anywhere else, it is a disrespectful gesture and I should have known better.

How to Get There:

Take Highway 26 from Warm Springs. Drive up out of the canyon and along the long, flat, and straight stretch. turn left at the sign for "Old Mill" "Blue Lake", County Line or Blue Lake Road. Follow that road as it heads west, then north. You can use the map above after that to investigate.

Lava Cast Forest and Paulina Mountains

Cast of ancient tree surrounded by lava, then rotted away over 7,000 years.

Newberry National Volcanic Monument has a vast area to explore and all within an hour of Bend. A lesser know area is the Lava Cast Forest and the Paulina Mountains.

Overview of area, US 97 in the upper left, Paulina & East Lakes bottom right.

The Lava Cast Forest was formed about 7,000 years ago when Newberry Volcano erupted. The flow spilled around existing trees that left molds or casts of their existence.

The 'hike' around this area is a paved path (due to the fragile nature of the landscape). 

The second part of this day was to sample some midsized lava buttes in the Paulina Mountains. I drove a few more miles into the forest and headed in near Pilpil Butte

Hike around Paulina Mountains

Unusual lava formations pop up as remnant 'bombs' of lava shot out of Newberry. 

Meadow east of Paulina Mountains.

Paulina Mountains peak-my afternoon destination.

One of the things I really like about this type of jaunt is the feeling that not many folks have ever been to the area you are walking on. You discover interesting things about yourself as your mind is fully entrenched in the moment of wayfinding.

Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters.

Hike Length: 7 miles Hike Duration: day hike

Hike Configuration: loop Blaze: open forest, no trail

Start Elevation: 6,450 feet Highest Point: 7,516 feet Elevation Gain: 1,066 feet

Hike Rating: easy to moderate, some bushwhacking

Trail Condition: walking on dry soil by May, some patches of snow remain

Starting Point: FS Road 9710

Trail Traffic: not a soul

Access:  open, AWD vehicle recommended, sketchy access road

How to Get There:From Bend, south US 97 to Lava Butte, left onto Lava Cast Forest Road FS Road 9720. Follow about 8.5 miles to Lava Cast Forest campground. To get to Paulina Mountain loop from there: Turn right after leaving campground, at about 1.75 miles, turn right onto FS Road 9710. Follow for 6.5 miles to around Pilpil Butte.

Opal Creek Upper Watershed

The Opal Creek Wilderness is a lush forest with old growth and tons of water. The creek lives up to it's color namesake. I hiked deep into the wilderness in early May where snow still lingered.

It's a strange feeling as you go deeper into the wilderness. There were many eras of mining in this region and remants are everywhere. You'll walk for several hours and then suddenly come upon rail tracks. It's a mixed vibe. You feel like you've discovered some lost civilization and you also feel like these artifacts are trash in the landscape left behind.

Metolius River with kids

The volcanic activity in the area northwest of Sisters, Oregon has created many cool features. One of them is spectacular Metolius River. Emerging from one of those ancient lava flows, the Metolius comes out of the ground as a full river. Check out the headwaters of the Metolius as an easy side trip. A car park and easy 10 minutes flat hike leads you to the spot where the river just appears-an amazing sight.

For this trip, my friend Rick and I along with our boys parked at a gate across the double track near Lower Bridge Campground on the east side of the river. The boys hopped on bikes for the short jaunt to find a flat spot along the river to camp.

For young kids, this is a PERFECT experience. You are away from the car (you can find spots as close as a mile in) but the kids feel REALLY out there. This is a perfect trip (short drive from Sisters, easy double track road) to get your kids out of doors. It is trips like this that give the kids perspective beyond the worlds that they already know.

 

Rick and Taz at the TH.

The boys pedal their way into the unknown!

The view downstream

Playing with ants along the river

setting camp

OOhhh. Boys. Fire. Oh yay!

Yamsay Mountain

This is my first film. It may take a bit buffer if your connection is slow. The production is very amatuerish, but should tell you the story of Yamsay...a very interesting peak in South Central Oregon.

Part One



Part Two

Christmas Valley-Crack in the Ground

Within a short drive of the city of Bend is a gorgeous, little visited volcanic area in the Fort Rock/Christmas Valley area. Fort Rock is better known than these sights to its east and north of Christmas Valley.

This remote location is where unusual splatter cones, deep fissures, caves, ancient juniper trees and a bevy of wildlife exist among hundreds of square miles of varied desert landscape from mountains to plains to sanddunes.

Travis and I started on a relatively warm winter day in late February so as to avoid the unbearable summer heat of the area and the increase in people that come here. We saw one person in three days.

Our first stop was the Crack in the Ground. This is a two mile long, up to 70 feet deep and from about 2-15 feet wide fissure that runs north/south and is effectively a fault line. A trail to it drops into the crack and submerges you into a cold, barren world.









The formations were amazing. Water and lava have obviously played a big part here in the wearing of the stone. However, the movement of the fault is also noticeable. Below you see Travis navigating under a giant stone bridge that collapsed over the fault.

The sun washed over Juniper and grasslands & shone a brillant color.

The morning sun dried up the rain we had overnight and a shortlived mist rose up.



Travis crawls out of his shelter and begins to break camp. I love this picture!

We left the flatlands of the Crack in the Ground area and hiked cross country.

The Juniper forest was incredible. We saw some that were the size of 75 year old Ponderosas (read-a LOT bigger than your average Juniper). The startling thing is that you lose your bearing very easily in this forest even though it's not that thick. The lack of perspective or landmarks makes it very difficult to know where you are. Click this short film which is a 360 degree shot of the endless Juniper we saw for miles and miles.

We had maps, a compass and even a GPS, but we were just wandering around and discovering the area not following any trail. We did have a few spots we thought we might try for, but we never found them.

After a few hours, I was a bit frustrated that my normal good sense of direction was not serving me. We had come upon some tracks-not more of the hundreds of cougar, elk, deer or coyote tracks we'd seen, but our own. Yeah, I know, turn on the GPS. We just didn't bother. We weren't lost and I was determined to get reoriented without 'cheating' with technology.

Travis had the wisdom to get us up on a butte to regain our bearing. That did the trick. At this point, I also gave up my ridiculous manly thang of not turning on the GPS which I had subconsciously been keeping it in my bag.

The rise we climbed was Green Mountain. A short jaunt up, but a good view over the miles of Juniper that had blinded our vistas. Fort Rock is the dark horizontal line in the dead middle of the photo (I know only I can see it-sorry) that's 17 miles to the east.

A highly recommended excursion to an unusual little trampled upon wild place...