It’s mid August, the dreaded County fair has come to an end, it’s hot and smoky with no relief in sight. What to do? Head to the coast for tuna of course!
When it is really hot inland it’s pretty common for the coast to be fogged in, cloudy and cool. That was certainly the case this time around. It was a welcome break after weeks of heat and quite a bit of wildfire smoke.
After a pretty steady run of rivers it was time to stay ashore for the weekend and head to Steens Mountain. Steens Mountain is a huge fault block mountain in southeastern Oregon. From the west it’s a steady incline, from the east a steep dramatic drop off. The western side is also riddled with dramatic glacial canyons you can only appreciate with a good hike. We arrived for the weekend just before dark on Friday night at South Steens campground. There were about four other camps, not bad for a Friday night. Just as we set up and had the fire started the rain set in and we spent the rest of the night in the camper.
Next morning we were off to hike up the Big Indian Gorge. I’d only been here once before quite a while back. It wasn’t a wilderness then, but it was probably a little more wild. Anyhow, we made our way toward the gorge, a big glacial carved canyon cutting deep into the west side of the mountain. Note the new snow from the night before. It is June, right?
Spring has been a bit short on flowers and green to date with cold weather through most of April in the high desert. If spring won’t come to you, you go to it. So with that in mind we headed west, stopping in Corvallis for some fresh veggies at the farmers market and then on to the coast. It seems like we’re still watching the snow melt and the farmers market in the valley was in full swing.
We arrived at the coast by mid afternoon, enough time for a hike to the end of the Cape.
