Tag: Sandhill Crane

Threemile Canyon and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge – 09/03/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 7, 2023
1 Comment on Threemile Canyon and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge – 09/03/2023

After spending the night in Burns it was time for the featured hike that had brought us here. Threemile Canyon was a recent edition as a featured hike after switching editions on our quest to finish the 100 featured hikes in each of William L. Sullivans guidebooks (post). We got a little later start than typical for us opting to stick around long enough to take advantage of the 6am full breakfast at our motel. After eating we made the hour and a half drive South on Highway 205 (County Road 202) to the Threemile Creek Trailhead.

We’d driven through a couple of rain showers but we had a bit of blue sky overhead at the trailhead (for now).
Beatys Butte to the SW.

Rain to the SW as well.

We followed the Threemile Creek Trail into the Steens Mountain Wilderness and Threemile Canyon.

Earlier rains had left the vegetation that crowded the trail rather damp which quickly left our pant legs wet.

Threemile Creek could be heard but not seen through the thick brush.

Lupine

At the 3/4-mile mark we arrived at a junction with Huffman Trail.
There was a post but no sign at the junction.

Our plan was to take the Huffman Trail uphill to its end on a plateau. If the weather was decent we would then take the Threemile Creek Trail further up Threemile Canyon before returning to the car. We turned left at the junction and began a steep climb, nearly 1100′ in 1.7-miles.

Wickerstem buckwheat

The Pueblo Mountains (post) in the distance including the domed Pueblo Mountain.

Clouds and rain showers to the SW.

Threemile Canyon

The faint Huffman Trail.

Alvord Peak in the center distance with Pueblo Mountain to the far right.

Closer look at Alvord Peak in the center.

Still a little blue sky to the NW.

Not sure where the fog below came from but it was on a mission to beat us up to the plateau.

Here comes the fog and some rain.

Just moments later.

And here is the fog.

We put our rain covers on at a switchback and continued uphill with a light rain falling through the fog.

The fog had moved on by the time we arrived at the plateau, but the rain lingered.

The final pitch to the plateau.

Cairn at the end of the trail.

Exploring is possible as long as you remember where you came up.

Looking West.

Looking toward Threemile Canyon.

The rain let up around the time we started back down and the clouds soon began to break up.

Beatys Butte at center with the long fault block of Hart Mountain (post) to the right partly behind the clouds.

This frog seemed to enjoy the damp weather.

Cliffs across Threemile Canyon

Arriving back at the junction with the Threemile Creek Trail.

With the weather improving and the Threemile Creek Trail continuing less than a mile beyond the junction we decided to give it a go. Heather told me to go on ahead and to turn around when I was ready and she would just turn around when she felt like it or we met up again. The Huffman Trail had been faint in places and a bit rough, but the remainder of the Threemile Trail took these to a different level.
It started out nicely passing a hillside covered in sunflowers, a few aster, and some curlycup gumweed.

Curlycup gumweed

The trail crossed and at times used dry creek beds and also crossed Threemile Creek several times.

The easiest crossing of Threemile Creek. Several of the others were not obvious until I pushed through the brush and then the footing was often tricky due to large, slick rocks needing to be navigated (at least in order to stay out of the creek).

On the trail, I think.

Elderberry

Hard to tell by the photo but this puffball was a little bigger than a softball.

The trail was described as ending in a meadow just under a mile from the junction with the Huffman Trail. I lost the trail at what appeared to be a post, but it also may just have been a snag.
I wouldn’t really describe the area as a meadow but I was 0.9 miles from the junction.

Since I was uncertain if this was the “meadow” I scrambled over a few rocks looking to see if I could find a continuation of the trail. I couldn’t but I did spot a lone red paintbrush.

Looking down at the meadow and post/snag (lower right) from the rocks.

I turned around here and headed back. I met Heather on the far side of the first really tricky creek crossing where she had decided to stop. We hiked out together as the clouds continued to break up overhead.
Sometimes the trail was really only identifiable by which junipers had had limbs cut.

The drop to the creek here was approximately 2′ and the pool in Threemile Creek was fairly deep making this crossing a bit of a challenge not to slip and fall in.

Aster

Sullivan’s map showed a “Bart Simpson Rock” which we believe was this one.

Nearing the sunflower hillside and trail junction.

Dragonfly

Skipper

Big bumblebee

On our way out of the canyon we spotted some horses on the hillside to the south. We don’t know if these were part of the South Steens HMA herd or if they belonged to the ranch but they were pretty.

The hike to the ends of both trails came to 6.7 miles with approximately 1900′ of elevation gain.

With our featured hike complete we headed back for Burns. It was just after 12:30pm so we had plenty of day left and couldn’t pass up the chance to once again drive the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge’s auto tour route. We’d last driven the route in 2021 (post) and both times we’d visited we’d seen abundant wildlife. In addition to the auto tour there are numerous short trails and hiking opportunities along the way. We hiked several of the trails before but had yet to visit the historic P Ranch near Frenchglen or Krumbo Reservoir which is just under 4 miles from the auto tour route.

Just before reaching Frenchglen we turned off Highway 205 onto Steens Mountain Loop Road and followed it 1.5 miles to Central Patrol Road where we turned left. A third of a mile later we turned left again into the P Ranch and in a large gravel parking area.

We hadn’t seen anyone else all day until now. A couple was just returning from the River Trail. Amazingly Heather knew them so we had a nice chat before we set off on the same trail. They also let us know to look for an owl in the long barn when we got there later.
Sign for the River Trail.

The River Trail is 2-miles long and can be connected to several other trails to make a decent sized loop. We weren’t up for that kind of distance today so we simply followed the Donner und Blitzen River for 0.3 miles before turning back.

The long barn where we’d be heading next.

We turned around here where the tread became rougher.

Interpretive signs were scattered along the trails at the P Ranch.

Lorquin’s admiral and a grasshopper.

Skipper on aster.

Once we were back at the parking area we took the left trail down to the Long Barn Trail (another service road).

History of the P Ranch which at one time covered 140,000 acres.

The owl inside the barn.

Other structures from the ranch.

We covered a mile between the two trails and then continued on the auto tour keeping watch for any wildlife as we headed north toward Krumbo Reservoir Road which was just over 10 miles away.
The gravel road is in good shape but you don’t want to drive any faster than about 10mph so you don’t miss any wildlife.

Fawns

Common nighthawk

So many red-winged blackbirds.

Hawk (northern harrier?) in a field.

More fawns and birds.

Finch?

As we neared Knox Pond we spotted something coming up Central Patrol Road. Just a bit earlier Heather had mentioned that the area we were in looked like where my parents had seen a badger on a visit last year.

It turned out that this was indeed a badger. Only the second we’ve seen.

It disappeared in the grass moments later.

Another hawk

Sandhill cranes in the field.

Sandhill cranes

We turned right onto Krumbo Reservoir Road and parked at the Krumbo Reservoir Dam Trailhead.

We followed a trail across the dam then hiked through the sagebrush a bit further to get a good view of the reservoir.

Crossing the dam.

Kiger Gorge (post) in the distance.

Kiger Gorge

Blurry due to distance but there were several deer at the far end of the reservoir.

Another long shot, a western grebe.

Not certain what this bird was but it dove into the water a couple of times.

The deer, some ducks, the western grebe and a cormorant were all that direction.

It’s possible to bushwack around the reservoir but again we weren’t up for anything that long, so we turned back after just a quarter mile.
It also appeared that some rain was on the way.

Recrossing the dam.

We returned to Central Patrol Road and continued the auto tour and the wildlife sightings.

Pheasant family

There were at least 5 deer out there.

Two

Three more

White faced ibis

California quail

Pheasant

A few of at least 10 turkey vultures in the trees above the Refuge Headquarters.

Malheur Lake from the end of the auto tour.

After completing the auto tour we returned to Burns for another night. It had been a great day for wildlife and nice to once again have all of the featured hikes in SE Oregon completed. We’re now down to 16 Eastern Oregon featured hikes. If things work out we could be finished with those by the end of next year. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Threemile Canyon and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Columbia Gorge North Hiking SW Washington Trip report Washington

Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Nestor Peak – 06/03/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 5, 2023
No Comments on Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Nestor Peak – 06/03/2023

We have really come to enjoy spending time at wildlife refuges and have been looking for more to visit. I’d noticed Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge on maps when looking at the Mt. Adams area so I dug a little deeper to find that there is a trail there, the Willard Springs Trail. The refuge webpage describes the Willard Springs Trail as a “two-mile loop” then lists the trail length as 3.79 miles. The Oregonhikers.org field guide entry shows 2.3 miles as the hike length. No matter which length was correct, on it’s own the hike would be too short to warrant the 2:30 hour drive from Salem. I went looking for a way to fit a visit in and looked over my map of future trailheads and saw that the trailhead for the Nestor Peak hike was located on the way to the refuge. The Nestor Peak hike was just over 8-miles so adding the Willard Spring Loop would put the day around 11 miles which sounded manageable.

Our plan was to visit Conboy Lake first since it was the furthest from home, and an earlier start there might provide a better chance at spotting wildlife. We parked at the refuge headquarters and made our way to the historic Whitcomb-Cole Hewn Log House.

The path to the cabin on the right.

Built in 1875 the cabin was moved from its original location in 1987.

The snowy top of Mt. Hood from the cabin.

After exploring the cabin we set off on the Willard Springs Trail only we briefly went the wrong way. A grassy track lead north directly across the gravel road from the path to the cabin and we took it.

We got about 250′ before realizing that this path was just going to take us back to the parking lot so we backtracked to the gravel road and followed it toward the lakebed across a small canal. (The Garmin named this Cold Springs Ditch.)

We turned left on a wide grassy track along the ditch. Numerous colorful birds were flying in and out of the bushes and trees along the ditch, most of which would not sit still long enough for me to photograph.

There was a lot of monkeyflower in and along the ditch.

Lupine along the ditch.

Lazuli bunting

Robin

Yellow warbler (according to the Merlin app).

Red-winged blackbird

The top of Mt. Adams above the trees.

We followed the ditch for a third of a mile then crossed over it to a field with bird houses and more birds.

Swallow

Western bluebirds

We stayed right at a junction near the corner of the field following the trail through the grass then into a mixed forest.

Honeysuckle

Columbine

Rose

The lakebed was often visible through breaks in the trees.

Through one such gap in the trees we spotted a pair of greater Sandhill cranes. The refuge is the only place in Washington that supports breeding pairs of the birds.

Approximately 1.4 miles from the trailhead we came to a 4-way junction. To the left was a “shortcut trail” and to the right a viewing platform with the Willard Springs Trail continuing straight(ish).

Continuation of the Willard Springs Trail behind the sign.

More often than not on our hikes we strike out with viewing platforms/bird blinds. (We’d have better luck if we sat and waited for the wildlife to come to us.) It was a different story today with a deer making its way across the lakebed and an excellent view of Mt. Adams.

We hung around long enough that this warbling vireo came to check on us.

After a nice break at the platform we continued on the Willard Springs Trail. After another 0.5-miles we came to a signed spur trail to Willard Springs.

We followed this spur 0.2-miles to its end at a couple of benches near the springs.

Willard Sprins hidden in the vegetation. We could hear them better then we could see them.

A healthy lupine near the springs.

We returned to the junction and continued on the loop which now turned back south. It was interesting to see the change in the forest along this section that was further from the lakebed.

Cat’s ear lily

Hitchhiker

Lupine along the trail.

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Swallowtail

Lorquin’s admiral

Arriving back at the refuge headquarters.

Two interesting things to note about the hike were that the Oregonhikers.org Field Guide mentioned a trailhead 0.2-miles from the HQs along the entrance road but we passed no trails coming from the road and there appeared to be a no parking sign on the side of the road near where we expected to see this other trailhead. Our guess is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department decommissioned the alternate trailhead at some point. The other oddity was that while we did pass the other end of the shortcut trail neither of us noticed another trail joining from the left closer to the headquarters which would have been the other end of the trail that had split off at the edge of the field with the bird houses. There was even a map at the trailhead showing such a trail. Possibly another recent change (or we both just missed the connector trail).
Trail map at the trailhead.

The Garmin map shows the shortcut, spur to the old trailhead, and the other connector as well as some different locations for the trails.

Between exploring the cabin and briefly going the wrong way our hike here came in at an even 4-miles with only 50′ of elevation gain. Given the 4-mile figure the 3.79 miles listed on the refuge webpage for the Willard Springs Trail is probably the most accurate of the distance we came across. We didn’t see any other people, just a lot of wildlife which made for a great first stop of the day.

After finishing at Conboy Lake we drove back south to the Buck Creek Trailhead #1.

This is one of several trailheads located along the roughly 21-mile Buck Creek Trail loop. We had hiked a segment of the Buck Creek Trail in 2020 on our Monte Carlo – Monte Cristo Loop (post). Today’s segment would be a roughly 4.2 mile climb to a former lookout site atop Nestor (Nester) Peak. We picked up the trail on West side of N-1000 across from the trailhead.

It was later in the morning than we usually get started due to visiting Conboy Lake first and even though it was a little before 10:30am it was already feeling a little warm. The trail made a steep initial ascent before leveling off a bit.

There were lots of phantom orchids blooming along the lower sections of the hike.

Thimbleberry

Spotted coralroot was also plentiful.

Wallflower

Near the 3/4-mile mark we recrossed N-1000.

The trail actually lost some elevation here as it descended toward N-1300.

The trail ran parallel to N-1300 for a mile before again turning steeply uphill.
One of only two trees that were down over the trail, both were easily manageable.

The one small stream crossing.

There was enough sunlight getting through to really heat up the trail.

While there wasn’t much there we did occasionally see poison oak throughout most of the lower 2/3rds of the hike.

After the trail steepened we passed a spring on the right at the first of three switchbacks.

Sign above the switchbacks warning mountain bikers that they were ahead.

Following a fourth switchback the trail came to another dirt road which we jogged slightly right on before finding the continuation of the Buck Creek Trail.

Buck Creek Trail to the left near the roads end.

For the next half mile the trail climbed at a healthy pace. Heather hadn’t been feeling well and the heat wasn’t helping things. We talked it over and she told me to go ahead and she would go at her own pace so we split up for now.

More spotted coralroot.

Just over a half mile from the road crossing the trail crossed another road.

After another initial steep climb the trail relented a bit as it traversed around a ridge before gaining a ridgetop and following down to a saddle below Nestor Peak. Along the way were a couple of openings hosting bright wildflowers.

Vanilla leaf

Queen’s cup

Anemone

Lupine

Mt. Hood from the Buck Creek Trail.

Mt. Hood

Cedar hairstreak on yarrow.

Paintbrush, lupine, penstemon, and balsamroot.

Moth

Penstemon

Gaining the ridge.

Paintbrush

Showy phlox

The trail dropped off the ridge and started another good climb along a hillside to a ridge end where it turned steeply uphill climbing to road N-1600 a tenth of a mile below the summit of Nestor Peak.
Approaching the start of the final climb.

Sub-alpine mariposa lily

Showy phlox

Road N-1600.

A right turn on the road led past more wildflowers with a view of Mt. Hood to the remains of a shed on top of Nestor Peak.

At the summit Mt. Adams came into view to the NE.

I took a break at the summit and followed some butterflies around trying to get pictures. While I was busy chasing butterflies Heather messaged to let me know she was at the start of the final climb so I waited for her at the summit.

Unfortunate amount of graffiti on the old shed.

Mt. Hood and balsamroot.

Mt. Hood

Oregon sunshine

Boisduval blues

Duskywing

Balsamroot

Moths

Moth

Lupine

Butterfly on cat’s ear lily.

Woodland stars

Paintbrush

After Heather got a break too, we headed back down. There was a little bit of a breeze as we went down which combined with going downhill instead of up helped it feel cooler on the way down.

Blue-head gilia

Ookow

Winecup clarkia

Mountain lady slipper

The hike here would have been between 8 and 8.5 miles but I wandered around the summit area enough to log 8.9 miles on the GPS unit.

We passed 8 others on the trail (3 hikers and 6 mountain bikers) and saw another mountain biker on Road N-1600 from the summit. It was a nice hike but it would have been a little more enjoyable in cooler temperatures. The views and wildflowers were great though. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Conboy Lake WLFR and Nestor Peak

Tags Buck Creek Trail, Buck Creek Trailhead #1, Conboy Lake, Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge, hiking, Mt. Adams, Nestor Peak, Sandhill Crane, Washington, Whitcomb-Cole Cabin, Willard Springs, Willard Springs Trail

Central Oregon Hiking Lakeview Oregon Trip report

Lake Abert and Summer Lake – 07/24/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 30, 2020
4 Comments on Lake Abert and Summer Lake – 07/24/2020

Our time in Lakeview had come to an end and we were ready to head home after a week of hot, challenging, but enjoyable hiking. Before we went home though we had planned two more stops on the way. The second stop was to do the final featured hike in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Easter Oregon” 3rd edition in the Klamath Falls section. That hike was at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area but before that hike we had originally planned to hike to the top of Abert Rim.

The Abert Rim hike had been a featured hike in the 2nd edition of Sullivan’s book but was now relegated to an “additional” hike. The hike to Abert Rim entails a 1.6 mile, 2100′ elevation gain climb entirely off-trail. By this point of our trip we just weren’t up for another off-trail adventure let alone one that gained 2100′ in 1.6 miles. We decided that instead of climbing Abert Rim we would park at the wildlife viewing area where the hike would begin and walk down to Abert Lake. We parked at a signed pullout between mile posts 84 & 85 of Highway 395.

After reading the interpretive signs at the pullout we headed down a steep trail (we missed the dirt road that led down at a much gentler grade).

Once we were down the steep little hill we found the dirt road and followed it right along the lake watching the birds and the sunrise.

Gulls and avocets

American avocets

We walked down the shore until we reached a brushy area which was likely Juniper Creek. From here we had a good look across the highway at Juniper Gulch which would have been where we bushwacked up to the rim.

To get back to our car we followed the dirt road up from the lakeshore.

We wound up doing a short .7 mile loop which was perfect. From there we drove back south on Hwy 395 to Hwy 31 and turned right (NW). We turned into the wildlife area headquarters (near milepost 70) and followed a pointer fot a “Wildlife Viewing Loop”. After 1.6 miles at a junction we turned right and followed this road to its end at the Windbreak Campground (a $10 parking permit is required, we purchased ours online prior to our trip).

When planning the trip we had been worried about mosquitoes but for the most part they had been a non-issue. They were a bit of a nuisance along South Fork Crooked Creek (post) and behind Barnhardi Cabin (post) but that had been it. I had received one bite (I think) while Heather had not been quite as lucky, her shoulders were pretty bumpy with just a few on the legs. Our luck ran out at Summer Lake with it’s marshes and ponds it was the prefect recipe for the little buggers. Deet was applied quickly but not before Heather had a 20+ new bites.

Despite that the hike here was nice, it was flat following dikes for 2.3 miles which meant no elevation gain. Birds were almost as plentiful as mosquitoes but boy are they skittish. Most of the ducks flew off before we really got a chance to focus on them. The white faced ibis were more photogenic and we got to see another sandhill crane. We also spotted a coyote and two pups crossing the dike.

A white faced ibis and some ducks.

Swallow rave

Sandhill crane

Look more ducks!

White faced ibis coming in for a landing.

Looking out over Summer Lake

White faced ibis

Black-neck stilt

Killdeer

Great blue heron in flight.

After 2 miles the dike made a hard right and .3 miles later (at a tractor) we reached private land and turned back.

The dike also provided a good view of Winter Ridge where we had started our Lakeview area hikes (post).

We double timed it back to the car in an attempt to keep the bugs at bay. We could have done without those pests but c’est la vie. It had been a fun week but our feet were done and by the time we had gotten back to the car we were even happier with our decision to save Abert Rim for another time. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Lake Abert and Summer Lake

Tags coyote, duck, hiking, Lake Abert, Lakeview, Oregon, Sandhill Crane, Summer Lake, Summer Lake Wildlife Area, White Faced Ibis, Windbreak Campground

Hiking Oregon SE Oregon Trip report

Pillars of Rome and Chalk Basin – SE Oregon Vacation Day 5

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 18, 2018
4 Comments on Pillars of Rome and Chalk Basin – SE Oregon Vacation Day 5

On day 5 we said goodbye to Jordan Valley and headed west on Highway 95 to Rome where we made a brief detour to visit the Pillars of Rome. The sun was still rising when we arrived so our lighting wasn’t great for photos but the interesting rock formation here were a taste of what we’d be seeing later during our hike at Chalk Basin.

After visiting the pillars we returned to the highway and followed our guidebooks directions to Chalk Basin. The description of the drive calls for a high clearance vehicle and I would add you need all wheel drive at a minimum. The final 16.6 miles of the drive were by far the worst we’ve driven. A theme was developing on this trip and we once again parked before the recommended starting point. This time we parked .9 miles from where the guidebook suggested at an old tire that had been converted to a water trough.

There are no trails at Chalk Basin but after walking the .9 miles we turned right at an x junction onto an even worse old roadbed and headed down into Chalk Basin.

There were some tire tracks present, I can only assume they were from OHVs, as we followed the road for 1.2 miles to a fork. Along the way we passed some tufted evening primroses and an orange globe mallow.

Across the basin we had a view of some mini painted hills.

We veered right at the fork and in a tenth of a mile came to a crossing of a dry wash.

We turned right here and headed down the wash.

We followed this wash for .7 miles to a drop off at a dry waterfall. It was an interesting hike through the wash which it turned out was not entirely dry.
Side blotched lizard

Wildflowers in the wash

Smooth stemmed blazing star

Monkeyflower

End of the water in the wash

Above the dry waterfall

Following our guidebook we backtracked 100 feet and climbed out of the wash up the gentlest slope to the south.

When we crested the hill we could see the canyon we had been in winding its way toward the Owyhee River Canyon.

We continued south heading for another large dry wash, this one running north/south.

We headed for that wash passing a group of smooth, rounded protrusions.

As we were dropping into this wash the one and only snake we would see on our whole trip passed between us heading uphill. It was a decently sized garter snake, not one of the areas many rattlesnakes. Heather never even saw it and it disappeared into the sagebrush. Soon after a small side blotched lizard raced into a different bush, then a much larger lizard raced out of that same area and up onto some rocks.

We were supposed to follow this wash for another .7 miles, staying left at forks, to the head of the wash. We passed some interesting rock formations along the way but somewhere along the line we took one left fork too many.

We didn’t realize it at first as we had been trying to only take the most obvious left hand forks. When we reached the end of the wash we headed cross country toward the lowest point we could see which happened to be a little to the south of a large rock fin.

If we had been in the correct spot we would have crested a ridge at the edge of a rim just to the NE of a feature known as the Yellow Knoll. Instead when we reached the top of the ridge the Yellow Knoll was still quite a ways to the south.
Yellow Knoll with the Yellow Dome to its left.

Yellow Knoll

Yellow Dome

We followed the ridge up and down a little under half a mile to the Yellow Knoll. The views form the ridge were great as we made our way over.

We eventually made it over to the Yellow Knoll and hiked to a viewpoint atop it.

After checking out the view from Yellow Knoll we headed for Yellow Dome and climbed to its top.

The view from Yellow Dome was even more impressive as the Owyhee River flowed past rows of chalk pillars.

After admiring that view we headed back past Yellow Knoll and followed the canyon rim for half a mile before striking off cross country following a dry stream bed in a westerly direction.

This dry stream ran past the water trough that we’d parked at so all we had to do was keep that on our left and it would lead us back to our waiting car.

Dry stream bed (indentation) on the left with Steens Mountain in the distance.

Following the stream bed worked perfectly and we were soon back on the horrible road after a spectacular 6.9 mile hike at Chalk Basin. After surviving the road we took Highway 78 north to East Steens Road where we turned left toward Fields. The road is paved for the first 10.9 then turns to gravel for the next 42.3 miles before turning pack to pavement. The views of Steens Mountain and the Alvord Desert along this drive were amazing and we did stop once when we spotted a pair of sandhill cranes in a field.

When we arrived at Fields Station we checked on the availability of a room. Fortunately there was one available for the night so we checked in. The room was actually a large front room with a bed, table, chairs, refrigerator/freezer and a coffee maker, a bathroom, and another bedroom in the back. After getting settled we went over to the store/cafe and ordered bacon cheeseburgers and a couple of their famous milkshakes before the cafe closed at 4pm. I had a 3C – Coffee, Chocolate, and Caramel and Heather had a combination of Raspberry and Chocolate. They lived up to the hype. We had a full day of hiking ahead of us before we started our journey home so we turned in early (a little extra early now that we were back on Pacific Standard Time instead of Mountain Time). Happy Trails!

Flickr: Pillars of Rome and Chalk Basin

Tags Chalk Basin, Fields Station, hiking, Milkshake, Oregon, Owyhee River, Pillars of Rome, Rome Oregon, Sandhill Crane, Side blotched lizard, smooth stemmed blazing star, Steens Mountain, Tufted evening primrose, Yellow Dome, Yellow Knoll