Months of snow, in what normally would have been spring, have translated into an extended runoff.
Rivers and reservoirs are at capacity and that means fishing isn’t at its best.
While we wait for the flows to subside, it’s still interesting to witness all that water.
Someone has jury duty, and while she’s not happy about it, this week we’re sticking closer to home. Thus a return trip to the rushing Crooked River.
One more summer-like day was forecast this week, so we headed up to the Crooked River. It was mostly to check on spring run off. This winter, as we’ve noted many times in posts, we saw a lot of snow days.
The Crooked River canyon has come into it’s spring colors and the water levels pushed up on the banks.
I think the saying . . . feast or famine, accurately describes Central Oregon’s water issues. Last year, even after runoff, reservoirs sat at about twenty percent full.
When we visited the river it was running at 1340 cfs and the Prineville Reservoir was at 85 percent capacity. The late winter snows have improved drought conditions and hopefully will help avoid last fall’s disastrous 10 cfs levels in the Crooked River.
Years of drought conditions are not easily fixed. There are still severe and extreme drought conditions across most of the east side.
The Crooked River’s flow has dropped to fishable levels but the mountains are still snow covered.
Oregon rivers are showing the signs of heavy runoff, filling reservoirs, as well as irrigation ditches.
It’s good news for farmers and fisherman, at least for this year.
This week Central Oregon skipped spring and went straight to summer. Not complaining, but it was an abrupt shift in weather and attitude.
We’re long overdue for a Summer Lake trip, so we loaded up the bird books and headed east.
It might be a bit cliche . . . turn seventy and post a piece on birding. Is that too much, old guy? In between trips to the river, which by the way are great places to bird, we do regular bird-centric excursions.
Over the years we’ve sat, eyes pinned to lenses, along a lot of different marshes. Living on the northern edge of the Great Basin puts us close to a few stopovers on the Pacific Flyway. One of the best, in our opinion, is Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge.
Unlike wildlife areas with better ‘press,’ Summer Lake never disappoints. Here we squint across a hundreds of yards of field. The loop road, often just a couple of tire ruts along the top of a dike, allows for great birding opportunities.
It was an unseasonably warm spring day, perfect time to catch the first round of migratory birds moving across the country. Some will spend weeks, others will move on in a few days.
The great thing is they never cease to amuse; like an acrobatic yellow-headed black bird bouncing from stalk to stalk, or Clark’s Grebes hunting a secluded section of the pond.
There is another visit scheduled for later this spring, well before the summer heat.
We put in a lot of miles over the course of a year. Most are spent on two lane roads crossing the sage steppes on the east side of Oregon.
A feature of driving through the high desert is you’re able to see the weather. Not just the stuff over our heads, but what’s happening on a distant horizon.
You witness weather fronts sliding across remote locations. We frequently pull onto a wide spot in a remote stretch of highway, camera lens pointed out at a distant butte or swale. Cloud patterns, rain curtains, and sunlight all casting shadows for our photos.
The play of light, clouds and landscape make for very interesting images. It connects us to the environment in a way similar to standing in a stream or hiking a rocky trail.
All if this is part of the experience we are trying to share in these posts. At the same time, making the journey as much fun as the destination.
I don’t think it would qualify for an Instagram post as ‘glamping‘, but this week we spent a couple of nights in a cabin on the John Day River.
Winter snowstorms still pester the Bend area, but at the park we enjoyed sunny days and mild spring-like temperatures.
Oregon State Parks offers overnight stays in cabins, teepees and yurts at parks all over the state. Most of these exist at coastal parks, however a dozen parks east of the Cascades have structured camping options.
Most importantly for us, there is always at least one cabin that allows pets.
Cottonwood Canyon SP has four “rustic” cabins available by reservation year-round. These two room units can sleep 8 people, have electricity to provide lighting, wall mounted heaters and an AC unit.
Cooking isn’t allowed inside, but there’s a gas grill, picnic table and fire pit next to each cabin.
A covered porch offers un-obstructed views east across a grassy flat, willow-lined river and the canyon walls.
Our first morning was spent watching Big Horn Sheep graze on the rocky north face just above the campground.
Later in the day, we hiked up to the foot of that slope and the Pinnacles Trail Head. This trail and one on the opposite side of the river (Lost Corral Trail) follow the John Day for 4.3 miles around a couple of bends in the river.
Winter runoff made fishing impossible, but we managed to fill our time catching up on reading, watching wildlife, and relaxing.
Reservations are snapped up quickly, but we’ve managed to find a couple of open slots in the fall and hope to become regular visitors.
