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silence
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 2:39 pm 
anyone been there? route descriptions, maps, pix, advice on getting in

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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mike
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 6:30 pm 
On Steens Mtn? I think the access is from the top. I've looked down from the N. Steens Mtn loop road. Have pics somewhere. Long way down. Don't know if there is access across private property at the bottom near Diamond. I believe the lower Kiger Ck is all private ranches. The upper canyon (4mi) is a new wilderness.

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coho
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 7:03 pm 
I haven't hiked Kiger Gorge, but I have hiked around Steens mountain a bit. It's mainly a DIY affair down there. Find a map that you like, study it well, and do anything from an afternoon exploration to a multi-day backpack. There's not many established trails (but lots of game trails and cow trails). You can hike in about any direction you like. There's so many options it's a bit overwhelming. A Kiger through hike from atop Steens to Diamond would be an outstanding adventure. You'd have to leave a car somewhere down below, or arrange for transport. It's vast and lonely country. You can really "get away from it all" if that's what you have in mind. You may see golden eagles, prairie falcons, pronghorn, mule deer, black bear, bighorns and wild horses. Bull snakes, rattlers, lizards and scorpions. The creeks have an indigenous desert rainbow trout "redband." The area was inhabited by Shoshone and Paiute Indians, and peoples from before them (they found a cave with signs of humans eating a pleistocene camel from many moons ago). The night sky can blow your mind. I stood in the alvord desert once and witnessed a dome of stars from horizon to horizon in every direction. Make sure your car is running well, and your spare tire is fully inflated. One of the biggest decisions to make is when to go. Steens mountain road doesn't open til weather permits. The last two springs have been blustery and wet. Last spring was very wet, and buggy. I had to get in to my tent at dusk to wait out the evening "bug off." The spring before that was like armageddon. If you can hit it just right though, when those summer winds start blowing through and the grass is still green and the flowers blooming, then you will be hooked. There are reports of grow ops on Steens Mountain (and more so Trout Creek Mountains). These people are armed, and have sophisticated operations with hybrids designed specifically for the local climate/soil. I spoke with the Malheur County Sheriff, and mentioning the Trout Creek mountains he said the drug cartels "own that mountain." I wouldn't let that dissuade me, but something to keep in mind whenever you're hiking around water sources.

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silence
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 7:34 pm 
thx guys .. it does look wild and remote .. so i read on the blm site that steens mtn is a bc ski area .. not that we were planning on skiing .. but that leads me to think the road is open early .. would you guess april? we're thinking of going while there still is some snow on the ground and esp on the mountains .. and b4 the bugs ... and now obviously b4 the growing season

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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coho
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 8:18 pm 
I think it all depends on snow melt. When I was there in May it wasn't open yet. The BLM office in Vale is a good place to call. They seem to be quite helpful, and some will talk your ear off.

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mike
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 8:19 pm 
bc skiing means that you can get out and ski not that they plow the road. smile.gif You should be able to drive up to the campground at the lake at least by April but probably not all the way to the summit. The kiger Overlook is a ways behond the campground. The road goes to the summit but is gated for the last ½mi. coho is right, just park at the overlook and take off. No trails nor are they needed. Be respectful of the private property. Some of the ranches are leasing ridgetops to wind farms at the north end of the Steens. Don't know how far the construction has gone. Ranches in Catlow Valley have declined to lease.

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whitebark
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 8:33 pm 
As an alternative to Kiger Gorge, you could hike The Big Indian and Little Blitzen river canyons, which have easy trail access from near the campground on the south part of the Steens loop road. The Little Blitzen trail is less used. I hiked a few miles of the Little Blitzen trail some years ago. It's a nice area.

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Schroder
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 9:07 pm 
I'll let you know - I'm driving through there tomorrow

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silence
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PostWed Mar 14, 2012 7:08 am 
Thx everyone .. i was reading about the Big Indian and Little Blitzen too

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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marta
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PostWed Mar 14, 2012 1:08 pm 
Steens are on our list for a Fall road trip so I hope you report back. You might also check out on the Portland Hikers board - Kiger Gorge.

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PostWed Mar 14, 2012 9:35 pm 
Temperatures down here were 50 degrees at 5000 feet today in SE Oregon. There's no snow below 7000 feet and only a dusting up to the cloud ceiling of 9500 feet. It's been raining, though, so the roads we drove off the highways were pretty muddy. We were told the snowfall this season is far below normal. We drove onward this afternoon and are now down in Winnemucca.

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silence
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PostThu Mar 15, 2012 7:02 am 
thx schroder .. where are you headed .. JT? whitney? they say there's a possible epic storm heading for the sierras this weekend .. but maybe not that far south

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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EnoughAlready
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PostMon Nov 27, 2023 12:28 pm 
"Some of the ranches are leasing ridgetops to wind farms at the north end of the Steens." Thankfully, for people who still respect wilderness more than "green growth," the wind project(s) were stopped by a Federal court in 2017, but pressure to develop scenic areas remains wherever there's consistent wind, despite pushback from ranchers and farmers who don't sell out. The Steens Mountain halt was mainly thanks to sage grouse protections and the work of ONDA, who lost a first round and had to appeal. This industrial blight should have been stopped solely on the grounds of scenic desecration, but Big Wind gets a free pass on aesthetic ruination. Too many people who once protested much smaller man-made eyesores like cellular towers have sold out to "clean energy" because civilization "must be saved" from the fossil fuels that made it so big. But the scaling math doesn't work and it's all built and maintained with oil. How many hikers would want the world covered with Mark Jacobson's "3.8 million large wind turbines?" Find the Princeton-Andlinger 2050 Net Zero America map of extreme wind & solar sprawl for a bleak glimpse of a "green" future. People who call massive industrial projects "beautiful" seem deranged to many of us. Nuclear reactors like Oregon's NuScale SMR could prevent a lot of ugly energy sprawl if people would get past their old fears. Wind turbines are very inefficient and their relatively "low cost" is deceptive because they get about 17X the subsidies of nuclear power.

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Slugman
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PostFri Dec 01, 2023 5:01 am 
What a total load of nonsense and blather. Completely off topic as well, a diatribe like this belongs in the trash, or at least the Public Lands Stewardship forum.

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PostFri Dec 01, 2023 8:47 am 
Slugman wrote:
What a total load of nonsense and blather.
From my perspective you are the one only contributing spray. I certainly don't agree with everything EnoughAlready wrote, but it is a perfectly reasonable post. Why not just start a new thread in Stewardship, quote the post you disagree with, and respond over there (but with an actual opinion, please)? Your insults aren't really working the way you think they are anyway. shakehead.gif

Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir

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