The Pursuit of Singletrack: South Eastern Oregon Exploration: Summer Lake to Hart Mountain

Kerrie and headed down to deserts and mountains of Southeast Oregon for a 5 day road trip to explore a corner of Oregon that we’d never been too before. We both needed a longer break from work and some wide open spaces and the smell of sagebrush was just the thing we were looking for.

Our trip started out heading South on I-5 towards Eugene where we cut over to Oakridge for some grub and beers at the Brewers Union. From there we headed up for a quick soak in McCredie Hot Springs before pulling into the Salt Creek Falls parking lot to sleep for the evening.

The great thing about this trip is that we’d finally be able to test the sleeping platform that I built for the back of our Honda Element. All our camping gear and food goes underneath us or in the rocketbox, which allows us to sleep in the back on top of all the gear. The recent addition of a Mountain Hardwear Mega-Lamina made the sleeping conditions quite plush. This setup basically allows us to sleep pretty much undetected in any trailhead, parking or driveway should we need to fly under the radar.

Salt Creek Falls parking lot

Not a bad view to wake up too

Home away from home

The next morning we checked out Salt Creek Falls, Oregon’s second highest waterfall, before continuing up and over the Cascades and into the high desert of Eastern Oregon. I had been to the upper viewpoint before, but never down to the lower one so we grab our tea and made the short walk down.

We took the Oregon Outback Scenic Highway southeast to Summer Lake, where we enjoyed a windy lunch overlooking the dried out Summer Lake. Feeling re-fueled, but not quite rested, we headed down the road a little farther and pulled off for a soak at the famous Summer Lake Hot Springs. There we enjoyed a rustic soak in the old barn converted hot springs and then again in the more picturesque outdoor rock tubs. While Kerrie enjoyed a hot shower afterwards, I enjoyed a solo soak in a passing rain storm.

Setting up lunch overlooking summer lake

We still had quite a ways to go with our projected campsite in the middle of the Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. We continued down and around to Plush before finally pulling into a view of the fortress like walls of the refuge. Cruising down the gravel road paralleling the refuge, we kept our eyes out for pronghorns and rams on the cliffs, occasionally pulling over for more concentrated scans of the rocky ledges. Finally we wrapped around the refuge and spied our ladder of a road into the high country plateau of Hart Mountain. We briefly checked out the visitor’s center before continuing on to Hart Mountain Hot Springs Campground, where we found a lovely free site in a grove of aspen trees near the springs. That night we had the hot springs all to ourselves, but were a little bummed that the cloudy weather was obscuring the view of the meteor shower.

Dinner Time!

Hart Mountain Hot Springs

After a hardy bacon and eggs breakfast burrito, we debated the potential route opinions, either continue through the refuge 40 miles on a backcountry gravel road to Frenchglen or wrap around south, back through Plush, Nevada and then up into Fields, Oregon. Ultimately, we choose the later as the goal for the day was a basecamp in the middle of the Alvord Desert.

On the way into Plush, we stopped to explore a side canyon waterfall tucked into the side of Hart Mountain. We barely made it to the trailhead as Ellie the Element scraped and bumped her way up. Not the best decision.

Waterfall in the Desert

After a few hours driving through middle of nowhere Oregon and middle of nowhere Nevada, we passed the Pueblo Mountains and came to stop at Field Station in Fields, Oregon. They are the only gas and services for miles and are famous for their giant burgers and shakes. While the fryer was off for the day, where were able to enjoy a raspberry milkshake while watching a plane taxi into the parking lot and fill up with gas. You don’t see that every day.