Nature – Page 4

June 22, 2025June 21, 2025

Pockets full of Rocks

Rockhounding usually involves scrambling up hills

While many of our posts are about fishing, that’s not the only thing we enjoy. We usually have a small menu of activities to choose from, while out on an adventure.

Wandering the high desert of Central Oregon, it’s impossible NOT to marvel at its geological features. The streams we sit along, spent the last millennia cutting out those basalt-rimmed canyons.

High cliffs of Sutton Mountain, near Painted Hills, Oregon

The Cascade Range to the west and the sage steppe to the east of us is a landscape of volcanic oddities.

Central Oregon’s northern expanse of the Great Basin took shape about three million years ago (Pliocene epoch).

Volcanic eruptions and the formation of shallow lakes deposited the material that is fodder for rock hounders today.

We’ve been picking over rock formations, digging pits and screening gravel beds for years.

It’s rare that we’ll come back from an outing without some samples in the back of the car.

This week the focus of our trip was on rockhounding.

These June days are still cool enough to make scraping back layers of dirt and shifting through buckets of gravel bearable.

The journey was pulled from one many geology related books occupying space on our shelves.

Rockhounding Oregon and Roadside Geology of Oregon are constant references when planning these early summer excursions.

In this case, a land owner allows access to BLM land across their property

This time around . . . our destination is Congleton Hollow and it’s 640 acres of BLM land which is open to rock collecting.

Limb Casts are the target. When a lava flow engulfs a forest the encased tree limbs turn to ash leaving a cavity which is eventually filled with minerals that over millions of years become agates.

Green and pink stones with distinct wood grain and sometimes bark patterns are the prize. But that reward is hard dug and often results only in fragments.

High Desert roads are edged in carpets of Lupine

The South Fork of the Crooked River runs along the lower reaches of Congleton Hollow. The upper slopes, where most of the rock searching takes place, are bare except for a scattered few juniper trees.

There are shade and grassy meadows at the base of the hill, on the banks of a lazy flowing stream.

JQ has just the spot for this ‘boulder’ and she ferried it across a wide expanse to load it in the back of the car

We didn’t find a lot of Limb Casts, though JQ did lug back a large, stratified rock.

There’s no need for buckets of agates, and the point is to explore spaces. However, we always manage to leave with some rocks in our pockets.

June 8, 2025June 6, 2025

June’s first river trip

Summer is in full blaze. The week is getting progressively warmer and we’ve already had a couple of small wildfires.

There are more places to go than days in the week. Plus, we kind of like to have a rest day between excursions.

That means we can do home-based errands when not on the road and in theory, stuff gets done.

Deschutes Canyon upstream from Blue Hole

One of the drives this week was up to Maupin to check out the Lower Deschutes before the rafters take over.

We kind of missed the Salmon Fly hatch this year . . . not sure what else we were up to.

The tail end of the hatch was last week, so we thought I might get some ‘big bug’ action.

There were no large stone flies on the river’s banks, so we resorted to other patterns. Caught a few little guys and had a great hike along the river.

The day was clear with a cooling breeze. We sat out the chairs along the road’s edge and enjoyed the morning.

By noon I’d gotten in plenty of casts and the place was filling up.

This was likely our last trip to the Lower Deschutes until fall . . . when the crowds thin and the rafts are put up for the season.

There are plenty of other spots to wet a line and with far fewer bodies.

June 1, 2025June 6, 2025

Summer Time

Small pools of water, overflow from creeks, fill the meadows along the roadway.

We spent a good deal of the week getting the yard back in shape. Planted some stuff, or should I say replanted, trees, shrubs, and flowers to fill in empty spaces.

We also hung a sunscreen on the pergola just in time for 80 degree days.

One of the 14 lakes accessible by the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

It wasn’t all soil and shovels, we did manage to make a trip to the Upper Deschutes River.

During Memorial Day weekend, campgrounds along the Crooked River get full. Folks tend to stick around into the week, so to avoid crowds we head for a different stretch of water.

Winter’s runoff has filled the lakes and reservoirs, but there is no snow left on the ground.

Headwaters to the Deschutes River, from Little Lava Lake to Crane Prairie, is a favorite little stream.

Upper Deschutes River winds leisurely through grassy edges

There are a few miles where the Upper Deschutes meanders through pine forests, meadows and marsh lands dumping into Crane Prairie.

Cascade Lakes Highway parallels the stream offering numerous pull-outs and great picnic sites. Bonus, it’s only half an hour’s drive.

The downside this time of year is mosquito clouds.

These pests get thick in early summer and this year it’s been particularly bad. Likely due to additional water standing in all the low land between the chain of lakes.

Western Skunk Cabbage is found along streams and wet woods

What little skin is exposed gets doused in a generous layer of bug spray. This practice makes it tolerable to hike along the river bank. It will be a week or two before the bug population makes picnicking even a possibility.

The weatherman forecasts more summer-like weather for the high desert in the coming weeks. Yeah, summer is in full swing and we’ve got a long list of places to check out.

I think rockhounding is on the top of the list, before we lose the chill of a June morning.

The Salmon Flies are on the Lower Deschutes. The Crooked and John Day rivers are very fishable as well. No shortage of places to go or things to do.

May 25, 2025May 24, 2025

May Musings

May, in Central Oregon, is an anomaly to seasonal shifts. April brings hope for spring. May comes, and winter still hangs around . . . think hail storm just two weeks ago.

Then you hit Memorial weekend, the official start to summer activities (camping, rafting). It’s not summer, yet it doesn’t feel like spring.

This week was a busy finish to the month. While we didn’t do any major excursions, we did manage a couple of trips up to the Crooked River.

There is the promise of a caddis or mayfly hatch . . . which didn’t materialize . . . on top of shirt-sleeve warm afternoons.

We’re still shaking off layers of winter, but are well into wildflowers, lower river levels, and increased wildlife activity.

Some of the week was spent raking up those layers of winter in the form of yard debris (disposal offered for free).

We also pulled out old trees to replace with new bare root stock. Not real exciting stuff, but nice additions to the yard.

With the promise of summer we’ve renewed plans for adventures now that our home improvement projects, AKA spring cleaning, has been completed.

May 18, 2025May 17, 2025

Bugs

Just a beetle, not a Caddis fly . . . but still a great pic.

River levels have dropped in the last few days, so we headed up to the Crooked in hopes of catching a Caddis fly hatch.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that these early spring hatches are referred to as the Mother’s Day Caddis.

He does this a lot . . . untying and retying different patterns. Sometimes it even works.

At its peak the water, rocks, bushes, and trees are engulfed in a cloud of small gray-winged bugs.

Little Black Caddis or (for the more entomological) Gannom, are often the name fly fishers associate with the insect.

There are more than a few Caddis flies varieties that have a spotted gray wing. Many of which hatch in early summer.

Without a lot more kick-net work, it’s hard to put a name to any aquatic insect.

In my case there was plenty of time to observe on water activity as there were no fish feeding over this hatch.

So, while nothing was hooked, a lot of ‘fishing’ was done. In the end, that is the general purpose of these trips anyway.

It’s already end of season for some plants. These Dandelions are setting seed in May.

Once home I pulled out my copy of Gary LaFontine’s book “Caddisflies” and it seems, to me, these are Psilotreta / Smoky Wing Sedge or Chimarra / Little Black Sedge.