Steen's Mountain - Day 3

Elevation Profile - Frenchglen to Alvord Playa

Going up the northern end of Steen's Mountain Loop Road from Page Springs Campground is deceptive in that you have no idea that you're climbing nearly a mile, the slope is so gradual. Steen's was once a flat basalt plain, no different than any of the rest of the area.  Then magma began pushing the Steen's basaltic plate upward, creating a gradual slope from Frenchglen upward to the edge of where the plate was ripped from its neighbor to the east, creating what is in essence a mile-high cliff.  The fault-block mountain was named after Enoch Steen, an army officer who (among other things) chased the native Paiute off what, at that time, was called "Snowy Mountain" by the early fur traders in the area.

Sage in bloom.

Washboards are the rule on gravel roads, and the Loop road excels at washboard. I had recently taken the Baja into the shop because I could hear a loose heat shield vibrating.  After the loop road, the heat shield no longer rattles, probably because it's lying in the gravel somewhere after being shaken from the car.  

The landscape is that dusty sage green dotted with juniper trees.  Some of the sage is in bloom, creating bright yellow spots among the green.  Part way up the mountain is a test patch to see how best to control the spread of juniper which the Paiute used to control with fire.  Since fires are suppressed now, juniper is taking over the landscape (each tree consumes 30-40 gallons of water a day which leaves little for anything else).

Lilly Lake

Lily Lake is (I assume) named for the luxurious lily pads spread across the surface of the lake.  It's like an oasis in an otherwise arid a dry sagebrush environment.  Grass grows abundantly around the lake. Turning off the main road, I discovered a picnic/camp site on the other side that would be a lovely place to spend a few days, though it's probably intended to be a day use area only.  No toilet.  Across the lake, a mule deer looked at me looking at her. We each elected to pretend the other didn't exist.

Fish Lake campground is situated (as you would expect) on Fish Lake, which is stocked with a kind of rainbow called "redsides."  I didn't try to fish as it was mid-day when I was there.  The campground offers camp sites at both it's eastern and western ends.  I would choose the eastern end for the aspen trees offering shelter from the sun.  The other end is pretty open to the sun.  There is a boat ramp of sorts, but no motors allowed. At about 7,500 feet, it probably gets pretty chilly during the night.  There is water at the campground, and vault toilets.

Speaking of aspen trees, some of the valleys on Steen's Mountain are quite spectacular, filled with aspen and grass, which must indicate a fair amount of ground water.

I imagined that all of Steen's Mountain was public property, but in fact a large chunk of it is private.  The aspen valley shown in the photo, for example, might be for sale by the Steens Mountain Packers.  I don't quite understand what that organization does, but they do have a valley for sale for around $750,000 if you're interested.  That price apparently includes a cabin.

Kiger Gorge

The first view of that precipice is not far past Fish Lake at the head of the Kiger Gorge – home range of the Kiger mustangs.

Now, I confess to being a guy afraid of heights.  But the head of the Kiger gorge is so high that you can't even get a sense of how high you are.  It's as though the world is lying before you (though in this case a smoky world because of all the forest fires).  From the parking area it's a hop, skip and jump to the edge, and to signage that explains what you're looking at.  If you take the uphill path from the signs, you end up at the head of the gorge, which is when you realize that the Steen's Mountain loop road is built on a very narrow land bridge between peaks. Steen's is carved into two sections; north and south.  The loop road crosses between them There is so little soil (relative to a mountain) between each viewpoint that it's easy to see that Steen's is actually a very sharp ridge, with nothing to the left, and nothing to the right.

Further along the road, the Little Blitzen Canyon yawns on your right.  The scale of these canyons is hard to imagine.  Huge just doesn't cut it.  Amazing comes close.  Awe-inspiring is good, too. (If you click on the link, click on the image then select view all sizes, then select the original, you can pan across a big view of the canyon.)

The rocks near the top are home to a brilliant orange lichen.  At one place I thought I was seeing a tree that was changing colors, but the binoculars revealed it was a huge boulder completely covered in the lichen.

Also near Little Blitzen Canyon is a rock structure that might have been a shelter at one time.  Three walls stand, though it looks to me like passers-by have been adding to the structure.  In any case it certainly would give relief from the prevailing winds.

A little bit further down the road on the right is the sign identifying Little Blitzen Canyon.  If you pull over and walk a little east on the other side, you come to an unmarked viewpoint that will take your breath away.  This is the first view of the Alvord Desert side of Steen's Mountain.  The link shows a panorama that you can zoom in on and look around.

The next viewpoint up the road is the official look at the Alvord Desert, with Mann Lake to the north, and the Alvord Playa to the south.  Even higher here, the scale of the thing defies imagination.  And way down there, in the Alvord Desert, are ranches and irrigated fields.  Amazing what you can do if you can get some water.  I did not bother taking a picture because it was so smoky that not much would have shown.

From the South Steen's, the road drops back down to level.  But it does it by becoming much narrower and clinging to the side of what would be a 4,000 foot rolling mess if you happened to drop off the edge of the road.  I decided I liked going down better because you can cling to the inside of the road for the most part, and pray that you don't meet anyone coming the other direction (which I did not, thank you).

All in all, Steen's Mountain is a spectacular place.  I want to come back next spring (which is late July around here) and see it when the air is clear and the grass is green.