Category: General

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More Rocks

Highway 20 ,,, clean air as far as the eye can see

Two things have happened . . . the air has cleared and daytime temps have dropped. So it is perfect weather to do some rockhounding.

There is no shortage of places to find fossils, minerals and rocks in Central Oregon, but all are nearly void of shade. Any roads near these sites will quickly become impassable with a day or two of rain. That in mind fall is an ideal season.

We’re headed east on US 20 to a dirt road just west of highway marker 77. Glass Butte and Little Glass Butte are six thousand acres open to public collection of a ‘reasonable’ daily amount of obsidian. The state defines reasonable as less than 250 pounds . . . no problem there.

The two low hills look like most of the hight desert landscape between Bend and Burns. A few patches of scrub pine and juniper amid large swaths of sage and rabbit bush.

Drive up the gravel road a few miles and quickly you start to see the glint of black rock scattered between the sage brush. Obsidian is typically black but at the Glass Buttes area you can find red, snowflake, green, and a number of other color combinations. This makes this a popular rockhounding site.

Shards of obsidian … this volcanic glass is hard, brittle and fractures with sharp edges.

We found a spot away from the crowds in the Little Butte area. It didn’t take too long to fill our bucket with marble sized pieces, perfect for the tumbler, and a few larger chunks as well. The material we picked up was mostly black but there are some with red and mahogany streaks. All were picked up off the surface with only minimal digging.

Once back home we rinsed the desert dust, inspected our finds and separated a load to polish in the tumbler. In addition to obsidian, we found some samples of petrified wood.

We’re thumbing through the Oregon Rockhounding book and plan more fall expeditions in the future.
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Smokey Daze

This week smoke from all those wildfires settled over Central Oregon. The nation’s largest wildfire burns just an hour south of us and a stormfront  brought hundreds of lightning strikes and of course, more fires. Nearly all the “hot spots” have been extinguished, but the big blazes in Southern Oregon and Northern California resist efforts to contain them.

All trips to the river result in a wet dog.

Mostly we stay indoors and out of the thick air. One day, when the air quality got a bit better we did the Cascade Highway loop. This takes us right by a favorite spot on the upper Deschutes.

Tip got to do some swimming and we had a brief picnic lunch before the smoke settled back down on us. The weatherman suggests air quality might get better next week.  But we have to keep in mind that August is peak wildfire season so we’re not holding out much hope. Glad we managed a few moments on the river.

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Summer’s End

In one day alone, lightning ignited 19 wildfires across Central Oregon.

August came and brought a scattering of rain showers, as well as a renewal of the heat warnings. The West is still on fire, the air quality drops to moderate and storms bring some rain but also lightning.

This week our escape was to drive a few miles west to the head waters of the Deschutes River and Tip’s favorite swimming hole.

 

The ODFW has placed restrictions on Oregon’s large rivers as water temperatures rise from the heat wave.

These “Hoot Owl” hours protect already stressed fish, limiting hours we can be on the water.

The Upper Deschutes benefits from higher altitude and mid-summer snow run-off, so it’s waters stay cooler and fishable, for now.

Tip loves this spot to wade the stream and play fetch. Once started it’s pretty hard to get his focus off the game. We’re glad to set our chairs on the shady bank and take in it’s natural AC.

There is a ten degree difference in temp plus the soothing sound of moving water (broken by demanding barks from the dog). Half a day on the stream and we all are refreshed.

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A Car Trip to Wilderness

A lone tree marks the trailhead into the Spring Basin Wilderness. Numerous side canyons provide opportunities for solitude. On this particular day we had the place to ourselves.

This week’s adventure focused on the Spring Basin Wilderness Study Area and our continued search for desert blooms. Cacti generally, more specifically Hedgehog Cactus, hopefully in bloom. Oregon’s high desert doesn’t support cactus like the southwest desert, however, there are prickly pear and hedgehog cacti and Spring Basin is known to have both.

Wild Heliotrope

The adventure starts with a drive north out of Madras and in a few miles we turn east toward Fossil. The route winds through high desert pine forests presenting an abundance of spring blossoms right along the highway. Spring Basin’s trailhead is reached by gravel road off Shaniko-Fossil Hwy just after you cross the John Day River.

A weathered sign board in a dusty parking area with a single flat metal post designates the trailhead. There is only a bit of shade offered by a single pine tree. A gentle incline, covered in sage and native grasses, sits below basalt cliffs marking the wilderness areas outer edges. The cacti we’re looking for may be scattered along this hillside and we assume, after the trail crests the cliff, though we’ve not hiked that far up.

JQ hoped to get a shot of a hedghog cactus in bloom, a rare find, but was just as pleased to discover a prickly pear cactus blossom.

Brittle Prickly Pear Cactus

After Spring Basin we continue the drive east to Fossil, then turn south eventually crossing back over the John Day River and connecting with Twickenham Road. At this junction we are on the eastern edge of Sutton Mountain Wilderness study area.

Sutton Mountain Back Country Byway

Sutton Mountain’s West border runs up against the Painted Hills Unit. That side of the wilderness study area looks somewhat innocuous, just a series of sage and grass covered hills that aren’t all that mountainous.

We’ve driven the gravel road from Painted Hills to the John Day River and Burnt River Ranch. The journey on this side of Sutton Mountain offers a totally different geology.

Emerald-green lichen covers the rock walls of Girds Creek Canyon

A gravel road cuts through a canyon lined with amazing cliffs of basalt. It  then drops into the John Day river valley where the deep green of irrigated fields contrasts with hillsides colored in shades of brown.

High desert cliffs of Sutton Mountain

A narrow single track gravel road hugs the boundary’s now more mountain-like slopes twisting around ridges and into ravines. Eventually it flattens back out onto grazing land and connects with the Burnt Ranch Road.

Here we turn south, pass the Painted Hills unit onto Highway 26 and home.

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A Summer Lake Overview

 

For us, there are regular excursions to Summer Lake area and the wildlife refuge there. It’s a favorite spot to bird and shoot weather images.

But this week we are looking at Summer lake from a different angle.

 

Winter Rim. The Western edge of the Summer Lake Basin is lined with basalt columns with vertical rock walls plunging to the valley floor below. This offers a beautiful backdrop for the many photos we snap while exploring the refuge.

There is a trail (Fremont NFT #160) running along the top edge of Winter Rim. The Southern OR. Intertie Trail extends from the northern boundary of the Fremont NF to the southern edge of Summer and Albert lakes. At the top of Winter Rim, the views of Lake County are stunning.

At the point we  intersected it, there’s a picnic table that hangs quite literally on the edge of Winter Rim. The view was obstructed with smoke haze on this day, but still very impressive. There is also a rental cabin at this site.

 

We have always used US 31 to get to Summer Lake, but this trip we found a whole new area to explore on the western side of Winter Rim.