In my more than seven decades of life I have traveled to places weird and unusual, but never did a view make me light-headed and dizzy, but the Steens Mountains East Rim Viewpoint did that to me. So I did what any sensible senior would do…I sat down on the nearest big rock knowing I would enjoy the view much better without wobbling.
Friends and readers often ask “How do you find these weird places out in the middle of nowhere?” “Easy,” I say, “We’ve been driving by the turnoff for years, but never made the turn…” until last month. My husband and I were celebrating 50 years of marriage with a trip to the middle of nowhere. In this case it was south central Oregon and the Steens Mountains.
”Next services 118 miles” the road sign outside of Lakeview said as we drove through the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge. And yes, we saw Pronghorn Antelope. We saw more cows than people on open range and real live cowboys heading cattle. The one restaurant we dined in while in rural Oregon served all their food in take-out containers, even if you dined inside at tables and coffee was $2.50 a cup. Yep! We love empty landscapes with friendly locals.
We stayed at Frenchglen in a 110 year old hotel built to accommodate travelers from Burns OR to Winnemucca NV., Entry into town is down a road with a 14% grade for three miles. The whole town is two blocks long with the hotel, a K-8 one room school, a store with a gas pump and a highway maintenance station but no post office.
Meals at the Frenchglen Hotel, a state historic site, were served family style at long tables, seated with strangers who became friends. Most guests were older bird watchers and photographers. Most everyone planned to drive the 68 mile Steens Mountains Byway which began nearby. The drive has something for everyone.
First, about those Steens Mountains…From the west this fault block 30 mile long mountain range gently rises to over 9000’ and is about 16 million years old. For seven million years basalt eruptions put down layers over flatlands, then for nine million years the land was uplifted. Glaciers formed and carved grooves into the surface. The eastern escarpment with an amazing vertical drop is what brings the tourists.
The road is only open a few months in the summer due to the snow pack and the paved and gravel road lets you travel through lands cooperatively managed by state and federal agencies and local ranchers. The road creeps gently upward through eight vegetation zones, including one full of Aspens in full fall colors until you arrive above the tree line. On the way up are glacier carved U-shaped trenches a half mile deep. It looks like you should be driving through a national park. Then you reach East Rim Viewpoint.
Look west and the land descends miles toward far off mountains. Look east and you see nothing but sky, then land in Nevada and Idaho. Walk to the edge of the precipice and your body goes “Oh NO you don’t…don’t even THINK about it…” and vertigo sets in. Your mind goes “Can you believe what you’re seeing?” And I quickly sat my aged body down on a rock because I didn’t want to be a splat on a rock a mile below.
I kid you not…at 9700’ at the viewpoint the dry lake bed below you is 5200’ straight down. The mind has trouble reconciling the almost 3-D vision tumbling down below you and perspective is out of whack. Given this eastern rim has been sloughing material off for millions of years, and it was glaciated, there is about a mile wide stretch of rock debris before the flat land begins below…the Alvord Desert.
This mountain range produces a rain shadow east of it and makes this desert the driest place in Oregon with only 6” of rainfall a year.The view from the east rim is a patchwork of desert, lakes, ranches, and irrigated alfalfa farms below. Cattleman Peter French once owned 20000 acres holding 45000 cows, 5000 horses, with 200 cowboys controlling 200 square miles. Now most of it is a wildlife refuge.
Some people come to the viewpoint and bring folding chairs so they can sit in comfort all day and enjoy the view. Binoculars help you look down on browsing Big Horn Sheep. Unique species of birds and bugs were being sought after by folks with field guides, as well as botanical curiosities. Rockhounds were looking for “Turkey Track” basalt inclusions. Everyone had a camera or cell phone out capturing the beauty.
Of course you don’t get a paved road this high unless the windswept environment was aiding mankind somehow. A short walk beyond a locked gate took a hiker to a telecommunications array at the very highest point.The view was powerful and beautiful and spoke of solitude and the memory will remain forever in our minds.Next time we pass through this area we will be on the road between Burns and Fields, we’ll be looking up to see that east rim escarpment from below, and I will be free of vertigo.
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