Between the Cascade range and the Wallowas, basically the northwest corner of the great basin, we wound through swaths of grainfields criss-crossed with two lane roads and dotted with wind turbines.
This flat expanse of Oregon is sliced by a canyon cut by the John Day River.
This portion of Central Oregon was once ranchland, a “… continuous expanse of native shrub-steppe habitat.” While the wind and wheat farms have transformed the land, the river continues, free flowing.
A Wild and Scenic Waterway status helped conservation groups give protection to stretches of the river and aided their attempt to re-invigorate a wild Steelhead run.
You can see the lush canyons of the John Day from many vantage points along it’s two hundred mile plus length, but access to the river is difficult without a boat.
Forty miles upriver from the Columbia OR 206 crosses the John Day where the Murtha Ranch used to sit.
In 2013, sixteen miles of that ranch along the north bank became Cottonwood Canyon State Park. A handful of this 16 thousand acre parcel holds camping, cabins and day use sites.
It’s nearly a three hour drive from Bend, almost to the Columbia River.
But the park offers excellent river access and small mouth bass fishing. In the fall there are few visitors, so we took advantage of an empty picnic site.
Then spent the afternoon catching bass and enjoying this beautiful and quiet stretch of the John Day River.
Let me know what you think if you cook some of the bass. So glad you guys are having fun!
Are bass catch and release, or do you eat them?
You don’t have to release small mouth in the john day however, I always release any fish but Bass are supposed to be good eating … might try some. We’ve been exploring the John Day for weeks and really getting to like bass fishing, hard not to catch fish. have a cabin booked at Cottonwood canyon first week in April (first available opening), so yea we are liking that part of OR.