Steens – Alvord Desert – SE Oregon/Idaho Area (See Map)
Pre-Face: I’ve never done one of these but after reading [MENTION=116467]Rock_Rat[/MENTION] I decided I would write about it. I would like to start off that my adventuring is different due to my limitations and on multiple occasions I had to have much assistance from my Father and without him I couldn’t do any of what I do. After this trip I realized my ability to do this is getting less from previous outings I will see how things go, but I do see things becoming more difficult and changing difficultly. This trip was by far the MOST difficult overland I have ever done and I would put it on par with not truly overlanding, more exploring the unknown(to us). Pictures for now, video’s will be further done as I edit/compile them together(I unfortunately forget to pause recordings when I just leave it on my dash/bumper).
Day 1
Starting the trip we were blessed or some say cursed with some interesting weather. Crossing over the Santiam Pass area we saw snow just SLIGHTLY above our elevation, very neat to see the snow level as it was lightly raining on us.
During the beginning the weather was supposed to be mid 40’s as the low and mid 60’s as the high temperature and partly cloudy. As we may have guessed, mother nature wanted to challenge our ability to quickly adapt and change. Leaving Bend I realized that I didn’t know the ‘rural’ speeds changed to 65 versus being 55 in Oregon. About 50 miles outside of Bend it was overcast skies and 50 degree’s Fahrenheit. I was following my Dad as he drove with his girlfriend in the Dodge towing his truck to Burns (aka base camp?). Cresting a hill the temperature went from 50 to 35 and snow started to fall and not a dusting, a almost white out blizzard. Went from doing 70 to 30 very quickly as people around us were dangerously close to hitting us as they were not being aware of the weather or respecting others. This lasted close to 10 miles and all of a sudden it just vanished, like we drove through a invisible door.
Arriving in Burns it was 65 and sunny, so different from what it was 70 miles previous, it was proving to be a interesting start of our journey. Unloaded and headed south towards our first attempt to cross the Steens into Alvord Desert area. We could see snow but figured they don’t get as much as we do and worse case we go the long way. So we started our trip and made our first area to camp.
Camping the first night was a beautiful area set near a stream in a canyon. It was one of the many reasons I love doing the overland/exploring, unique one of a kind camping spots that you can only seem to get during this type of exploration.
Day 2
We got up the next day and started on the trail, little did I know this would be the most difficult, life scaring, exhilarating trail I have ever been on & done. I’ve slid on snow, slammed into trees crawled rocks and a lot of other things in my vehicles over the year. As a lot of you all know I’ve been in my share of accidents and know some of the difficulty/fun, right? Climbing back out of the canyon we slowly made our way towards what we believe was the line through to the Alvord Desert area. The weather was 40 degrees and it was starting to get more foggy as we were climbing up into the clouds. Slowly it started to snow and temperature was dropping more and it was very pretty but still not what we had anticipated but we don’t always get to choose our weather sometimes. So continuing on we ran into a gate that said Private property, no biggie there was a ‘Y’ further back. Continuing on we started to slowly head back towards the area we came in at as we kept running into Private Property area’s and there wasn’t anyone around to talk about permissions and we respect it. As we were climbing out of a canyon, my dad says take a left here there’s a trail that cuts back down and up towards the Steens North Loop Road.
So the trail starts off barely visible except some quad/side by side tracks. I’m leading and in 4Lo – L and its bouncing me pretty good. I’m taking medicine but its rough on me, and the trail is essentially rocks the size of large baseballs all over. We already had low air pressure and was just going slow, did 3 miles in about an hour plus, but I do what I can. So continuing on down it’s a 600’ drop off on one side and the trail is as WIDE as the 4Runner and of course a tree is down. We break the branches off and my dad holds branches back as I, very slowly, drove through/over it. This was the start of me being scared, but happy that I get to experience something and SEE somethings I will remember for all my life.
Further down we can see a stream and some swamp and I stop before entering, nervous and wanted to know what exactly we were getting into if possible. Walking it we saw a 10-12’ stream about 1-2’ deep and moving at a good pace. Before the actual stream was a swamp and muddy. My dad’s rig is incredibly capable of doing almost everything you could want to do or more, mine not so much. He goes right through the mud and across the stream like it was a paved road. I go through the swamp and mud and of course my tires(Everyone knows I dislike my tires) are completely full of mud. I crossed the stream with actual ease, I thought it was going to be horrible experience but it was fun. I was back in the lead going up out of the canyon and around the first corner the trail was partially washed out, straight drop 5’ into the stream. White knuckled I drive, I swear that I feel my tires chipping away a little more of the washed out area, dirt splashing into the water and I see in my mind falling into the stream but I didn’t.
So continuing out the other side of the canyon, its stopped raining not as rocky, but skinny and muddy. My tires are basically slicks but I know from past experience slow and steady can get you through a lot as long as its not super steep or technically. Keep climbing my way out and constantly crossing streams and no more extreme cliffs on this area, way more enjoyable . Making my way up a stretch of uphill area I was sliding around like normal, I slid towards the downhill side(gravity is a @!#$ing mistress sometimes). Hitting the tire track on the downhill side I caught a branch on my roof rack in the rear, a branch about 6” in diameter was pushed up when it came into contact with my roof rack, slid back along and fell between my rear and my swing away. Next thing I hear is a loud snap and I see the branch now broken and falling to the ground as I continued up along the trail. Keep crawling my way out till I reach another flat area, it’s now sunny and warming up. I get out to grab a drink and see my rear swing away at almost a 45 degree angle from the bumper, I may have cursed at this time. Didn’t damage my vehicle, just tore the living out of my rear swing away. I wasn’t sure what actually happened at this time but was very sad that it happened, no issues on ANY previous trips/offroading.
(Not wanting to jump ahead but after getting home and looking at it Sunday(today) I actually broke a weld, a bolt to the frame and physically twisted the spindle and buckled the metal bumper. Very sad this happened but I will have to work on getting it fixed, its going to be about a few hundred for me to fix it and I have zero time till after September to do it and I don’t really have the extra money to do it at this time either.)
So we took a few ratcheting straps and pushing the bumper back up and strapping it forward we continued up the trail, cresting the top of the hill at 7700’ in elevation. Always so neat to go from tree’s to above a tree line and seeing more around now, the clouds/fog finally left, and smoother roads we were able to pick up some speed. Doing the cruise along the gravel road and still making our way to the Northern Steens Loop road, we rounded a corner and into a 3’ snow drift. Speed made quick work of it and didn’t even have to shift to 4wd and continued going forward we finally crossed into BLM area and shortly we saw our road go straight into a giant snow field?, it was larger than what I think could be considered a drift and was about 100-200’ by 100’ wide. Walking out onto the snow it was soft as it was after noon and about 50 degrees. We contemplated trying to go through the shortest area across but we were nervous as no area to anchor too and of course we didn’t bring chains so we snuck around the outside along the edge of the snow, it was slow going and really our only option. We got out of this area and were on a real gravel road, it was like Christmas! Driving down to go the long way since we were not able to cross over like we planned due to snow, we saw a Mule Deer and a Antelope .
After 12 miles of gravel road and less than a mile from Frenchglen and the 200 square miles of the most Mosquito infested land that I have ever experienced and the gate was closed….closed. My dad made short work of the rocks as his is designed for it, mine on the other hand slid off the rocks onto the transmission crossmember…long story short I made it over with a lot of hi-lift rock placement and winching.
Made it to fields where we setup a camp and tried to stay warm as it was raining again.
