The Deschutes River north of Maupin was, for years, a go to fishing spot. There are BLM camp sites along the river from the bridge on Highway 197 to Mack’s Canyon.
When we moved to Central Oregon it was with a thought that we’d spend time on the lower Deschutes.
However, we’ve since discovered the Crooked, Fall and Upper Deschutes and haven’t been to Maupin in over a year.
This year, as we were planning camping excursions. I noticed there is an extension of the BLM land South of Maupin.
In all those years we never even looked that way!
This week we decided to take a day trip back to the old fishing spots and checkout this new area.
The scouting trip was interesting.
That stretch of the river flows through a much tighter canyon and while there are some nice stetches of water, for the most part steep banks and narrow roads make this a much less inviting area.
We headed North, downriver, to our favorite parking spot … Oak Springs. We enjoyed a picnic lunch before heading back to home.
Lower Deschutes is on the camping list, but we’ll be back to old haunts rather than any of these newly scouted sites.