RETIREMENT TRIP #7

The Oregon Outback: Ranch Country

                                                       There isn’t much between Bend and Burns.  Five miles east of Bend, everything disappears except sage brush, rubber rabbitbrush and whatever other weeds are growing.  No ranches, no houses.  When the road went up to 4,630 feet at a truck rest stop, a sign pointed north to Camp Creek, Horse Ridge and Saddle Butte.  So Western!  It reminded me of author Bret Harte and all his short stories of the pioneers.

Three horses grazed near the Stage Coach Truck Stop, but otherwise we didn’t even see cows.  Route #20 stretched straight through open range.

“This certainly wasn’t his lucky day,” said Andy, as we passed a subcompact car going the other way.  The driver had been pulled over by a state cop or sheriff who stood next to the little vehicle by the driver’s window.  “He must have been flying to get pulled over here.”

Rich crops of alfalfa hay spread as far as the eye can see. 

Ahead of us for the next ten miles we watched the road:  several “no passing zones” on bends or small rises, only a couple dirt road turnoffs where a cop could sit in waiting and a speed limit of 65.

“If it wasn’t passing in a no-passing zone, which seems unlikely given the traffic, he had to be doing more than 75 in that tiny vehicle,” said Andy. 

“I guess he was in a hurry!” I chuckled.

“Yup,” Andy agreed.

We both grinned.  The sun was warm.  Life was good.  We weren’t in a hurry.

Later, at the top of a rise, a portable highway sign flashed, “Warning: Smoke Ahead.”   Andy slowed down, but we never saw any fire, and only a slight haze suggested smoke.

With water more accessible near Burns,
the ranches seem more profitable.
 

We were in Burns, Oregon before noon.  We couldn’t find a Starbucks, and there was no place to sit at the Signature Café inside Safeway, so we bought two donuts and went to McDonalds for coffee.  That hit the spot.  Locals all had on jackets.  One bank read 51 degrees; another said 53 degrees.   You wouldn’t know it from the brilliant sunshine, but flags were stretched at full mast in the brisk wind.   It was cold.

A trail climbs to Buena Vista Overlook
in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

From the top of the Overlook at Buena Vista, the marshland of
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge spread for miles.

Heading south about 30 miles to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, we passed through sprawling ranches of alfalfa hay.  Here and there cows grazed in fenced fields.  A volcanic butte separated the rich Burns farmland from a drier, much more arid valley.

Descending the trail from Buena Vista, we can see cultivated
land in the distance where ranchers plant alfalfa.

“This is the place that the Bundy followers occupied,” said Andy, as we drove past the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge entry sign.  “Do you remember that group under the leadership of Bundy that occupied buildings in a stand-off against Federal officials?  They were demanding that the government turn land back to the ranchers, relinquishing control.  I think this was the son of the Bundy in Nevada whose animals were confiscated for not paying grazing fees on Federal land.  One person was killed in the confrontation, but when the Feds moved into the Nevada home area, they found the land had been absolutely destroyed.  The father came up here to “rescue” his son, and they were both arrested.  The Feds got them on occupying a Federal facility and interfering with a Federal official who was doing his job.  The trial in Portland was supposed to start a few weeks ago.”

I could see how someone would get “lost” here.  Andy said he figured the FBI blockaded a lot of these roads.  It all started when two ranchers got 12 years in jail for starting fires in their fields.  The fire spread into the Wildlife Refuge.  Bundy had come to protest the sentence, but the ranchers really didn’t want his “help.”  At least, that’s what Andy remembered of the whole incident.

At Buena Vista Overlook we walked the quarter-mile trail to the top instead of driving the dirt road.  It offered lovely views of the buttes and the wetlands below.  Cliff swallows swooped around us, but it was too late in the season for most other birds. 

We followed Diamond Lane Auto Trail around Buena Vista Ponds, a gravel road through the wildlife marshland.

We stopped to walk in a few paces by the spot where the ponds might have been, but a wooden sign read, “Official Use Only.”  No purpose in tempting fate in Bundy country!

Malheur is called a protected oasis in Oregon’s high desert, a Mecca for birdwatchers and wildlife enthusiasts.  With more than 320 bird species and 60 mammal species, it is famous for its tremendous diversity and spectacular concentrations of wildlife.  It is one of the crown jewels of the National Wildlife Refuge System.  No wonder the Federal government went after the Bundys when they barricaded themselves in the refuge headquarters!

The poplar trees in Diamond are
dated at 100 years old.

President Theodore Roosevelt first set aside land here in 1908 as a preserve and breeding ground for birds when some species were being slaughtered for plumes.  Now the Refuge covers more than 187,000 acres of wildlife habitat.

The town of Diamond, nestled in the heart of the Refuge at the base of a poplar grove, has a population of five.  Can you even imagine living here?Large numbers of Mule Deer move in during October when the rutting season starts.  The ones we saw were still more interested in eating.

Andy turned in at Diamond Craters.  “I’m only going a little way,” he said.  “We did this road ten years ago, and it was terrible.”  We drove to the first overlook and walked out on the cinder craters.  The lava cinders, black and red, crunched under our feet.

“It’s like a moonscape,” I thought out loud.

Diamond Craters are actually six cinder domes that probably formed about 17,000 years ago.  They appear more current and un-eroded because of the arid climate and lack of vegetation.  The first flows, now about six miles across in the northern and southern edges, were pahoehoe lava.

Before the initial flow completely cooled, additional magma rose up underneath that lava flow in six places to form six domes:

1.       West Dome with two craters and Malheur Maar, formed where magma encountered ground water, which flashed to steam to form explosion craters.



At Diamond Craters a butterfly or moth
lands on a flowering rubber rabbitbrush.



2.    2. Central Dome where volcanic ash erupted from many vents so that the top of the dome dropped into a caldera or circular depression.

3.      3. South Dome where magma high in gas erupted out as cinder cones.

4.      4. North Dome which is covered with volcanic ash from the Central Dome vents.

5.      5. Northeast Dome which is a well-developed cone littered with volcanic bombs

6.      6. Graven Dome, a long channel-like depression, because lava flowed out the flank when the dome was forming.

It was a fascinating lesson in geology.

Cinder cones rise in six domes at Diamond Craters.

Our next stop was Round Barn.  Here Peter French built his unique Round Barn in 1880 to break and exercise horses in the winter in the later 1800’s.  We drove in carefully to avoid dust from the gravel road, but we also walked around carefully after reading the sign that warned rattlesnakes are frequent visitors.  Thankfully, there were no rattlesnakes today.

French, the boss of “P” ranch, a vast spread in the Donner and Blitzen Valley, raised nearly 300 head of horses and mule colts a year.  Most were kept to work on the ranch. 

French designed the Round Barn in circular fashion to keep horses running at a smooth and even pace.

Vaqueros inside the Round Barn of Peter French
could keep horses moving at a constant pace.

Unique in design, the Round Barn survives since 1880 in
Donner and Blitzen Valley.

Built on high ground for better drainage, the Round Barn encloses a 60-foot stone corral.  The conical roof is supported by a 30-foot juniper center post and 13 other posts.

At the age of 23, Peter French set off from California with 1,200 head of cattle, 20 horses, several supply wagons, a cook and half a dozen cowhands.  He eventually settled in Donner and Blitzen Valley to establish a ranching operation that grew to 200,000 acres.  He was one of Oregon’s first “Cattle Kings.”

His reign ended in December of 1897 when he was shot and killed in a land dispute with a local homesteader.  The Round Barn is the only one of three that survived.

Nearby a family-owned gift shop and snack bar was operated by David Jenkins and his dog Spike.  We greeted Spike, who accepted me with a kiss, shopped in the classy store and sat outside snacking on honey roasted peanuts and a shared tiny bottle of Chardonnay.  What a way to spend an afternoon!

Pronghorn grazed a mile or so around the bend.  The pond near them was nearly dry, but Oregon is going into the rainy season.

“It’s not nearly as cold as it used to be,” David had told us in the gift shop.  “Years ago we could expect 30 below in the winter, but not anymore.  It was in the 80’s here yesterday.”

At 4:30 p.m. it was a pleasant 61 degrees in Burns.  The car was actually hot in the sun.