Oregon - Hart Mountain

 

Frolicking at the Lakeview Oregon roundup was a lot of fun, but we were ready to head north, to Hart Mountain.  Tom has many fond memories of times spent at the mountain and in the nearby town of Plush. He, and Jeff, his brother in law, spent their high school summers in Plush working at a ranch, haying and running cattle and being a cowboy.

The view from Warner Lookout

Since our cell phone coverage is pretty much non-existent, we are using radios to communicate between the vehicles while underway and in campgrounds.  As we passed by their former employers ranch and saw the dilapidated bunk houses they spent summers in, there was lots of laughter on the radio reminiscing about practical jokes – a mouse and a bull snake were two, and several other ‘remembers?....’

 A local bull snake....

My first look at Hart Mountain

 

the locals

After seeing Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge for the first time, I think it should be called Hart Mesa.  It’s flat on top! Yes, you drive up the side of it, but it’s flat on the top!

Being a National Antelope Refuge we did see antelope, but not as many as I expected.  And we were out both late and early looking.  I’m told that the late afternoon to after sunset drive we all did together, took us right past the area where the highest concentration of antelope generally congregate.  We passed by the area when it was too dark to see much of anything other than bunnies hopping across the road.

 

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A favorite spot of Tom, Sue and Jeff’s is at Hot Springs Campground.  We passed through here on the afternoon drive, then Tom and I returned the next morning for some bird hunting.

 

 

testing the waters

While Tom was busy in the willows chasing little birds, I wandered off through the field towards the hot springs.  I was perfectly content to wander along and take photos with my superwide lens.

I wandered then got on my knees to compose shots, even laying flat out on the ground for a couple.

 

 

 

 

 

I was having a very enjoyable morning taking lots of ‘fun’ shots…..until I found this….

 

No more laying on the ground for me!

After rejoining Tom we headed off to Rock Creek, towards the northern end of the refuge to an area that he hadn’t been to before.

 

A small, seldom used road led us to an old home and log cabin building.  Both were in really bad shape.  With several decaying structures around – a home, the cabin, several corals and small barn, it must have been a happening spot at one time.

 

 

The sun set on the reddish hillsides where there used to be tons of big horn sheep.  Evidently the local mountain lion population is very fond of big horn sheep.  About 10 years ago, the population was about 800.  Today there are about 200 in the park.  Many have been outfitted with radio transmitters to follow them.  When the beacons become inactive and tracked, the evidence of cat attacks has been noted.   Our camp neighbors, hunters with 1 of the three hunting tags awarded for this 10 day of hunting, had been scouting for 4 different weekends, and hadn’t seen an animal yet.  Too bad, as I was looking forward to sitting in our camp to watch them on the hillside. 

 

The Hart Mountain area is pretty.  It’s also flat, dry and rather bleak until you look closely.  We’ll be back to see it in springtime after the snow has melted and turned everything green!

 

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