Wildfire

August 16, 2026August 15, 2026

Out of the Pan . . . into the Fire

We’ve had another week in relatively clear air, but remained surrounded by a smoke plume. At one point this week the air quality index for Prineville was 500 . . . that’s ventilator level bad.

This crummy summer got even worse with an early closure of Steelhead fishing on the Lower Deschutes. That season typically runs August to October and we get a couple of early fall attempts for the sea-run trout.

The fires remain mostly to the east of us and the smoke map was showing some better air along the Cascade Range.

With time running out for even a day on the river swinging for Steelhead, we were looking for an opening in the weather around Maupin.

South of Maupin, Lower Deschutes River shrouded in smoke

The SmokeWX map seemed to offer some chance, which was better than none, so we took it.

Turns out winds can shift quickly, so the light smoke cover had turned to a thick cloud by the time we got up there.

One poor choice down, we made a second and decided to see if we could get some images of the Grasshopper fire from Highway 197, east of Dufur.

The answer to that question is . . . yes, a resounding yes.

We managed to drive right into a level three “evacuate now area . . . oops. But the images were good and as long as you stayed in the car and kept your mask on it wasn’t too bad.

Fire watch adventure aside, we’ve been lucky with the air and at least to the south and east of us the air quality remains good.

Here’s hoping it stays that way.

August 2, 2026August 5, 2026

Escaping the Smoke

Just outside Terrebonne it’s hard to make out Smith Rock from the road

It has been an odd week. A large portion of Oregon remains on fire and choked in smoke. Over a million and a half acres have burned and thousands of people have evacuated, with more just waiting for that Level 3 – GO Evacuation Order.

While that was going on, our small corner of the world has been nearly smoke free.

There were a few bad air quality days the end of last week. Then this week our skies cleared. Our small section of central Oregon lay isolated from smoke.

We’re not complaining. It’s been nice to open a door and not start coughing. But there is a downside. All our regular haunts are still sitting in the smoke.

There are a couple of project fires just North of Prineville and southwest of Maupin. The John Day fossil beds Painted Hills Unit is scorched. And the plume from all these fires pretty much covers the rest of central Oregon.

We did find a spot close by to escape the smoke.

The Upper Deschutes is relatively smoke free, at least the section we stopped at. So for now we stick close to home and watch the fire apps waiting for the winds to shift and the fires to burn out

July 26, 2026July 26, 2026

Summer Smoke

Wildfire smoke obscures the north end of Prineville Reservoi

We did not get on the Crooked River this week. The Canyon was blanketed with a layer of wildfire smoke.

At the beginning of the week a thunderstorm walked lightning from the south to north, across Central Oregon. In its wake were a multiple fires.

Most of those ignitions were dealt with quickly, but a handful grew into major burns.

The biggest, Akawa Butte fire is over 26,000 acres and only 3% contained. It threatens the city of Sisters. But that’s not the only problem.

Pull up the app Watchduty and you’ll see that from Redmond north to Interstate 84 (the Oregon border) there is literally nothing but orange flames. So many in fact that two are designated “Complexes”.

The Rowe Creek complex is ten fires that have consumed 132,000 acres and is only 16% contained. North of that is the Hay Creek Complex which is 5 fires on 116,000 acres, but it’s 76% contained.

To make matters worse, a second storm swept up nearly the same line and while it brought some rain, lightning started a couple dozen new burns.

All of this fire brings smoke. While here. south of Bend, we’ve been spared the worst of the air quality numbers, we still sit under 100 plus readings. Unfortunately, this has become the norm for summer.

August 4, 2024August 3, 2024

A Day Trip

At times these past few weeks, it seemed that all of Oregon was burning. So this week we attempted to see if that was true.

It’s not. At least not the entire state.

However, here in the high desert we are regularly covered in a plume of smoke.

We began our trip before dawn . . . an early start to a long loop route.

First stop, Cottonwood Canyon Day Use with enough time for some small mouth bass fishing.

This is one of our favorite spots,. Set in a canyon on the last few miles of the John Day, the river meanders across the northern third of the state.

Upstream, the John Day River, at Cottonwood Canyon SP

The morning was mostly smoke-free with cool morning temperatures.

Sharing lunch with local wildlife

The day use space at Cottonwood was empty and offered plenty of shade. We set up chairs and took in the quiet.

The next leg was east toward Service Creek, another point along the river.

This brought us to the western edge of a group of active wildfires, Lone Rock (137k acres), Monkey Creek (176k acres), and Courtrock (20k acres).

The turn south at Service Creek was literally the last piece of Highway 19 east still open.

There are always interesting bits of geology along Oregon highways

It was as far as we intended to go, but we did cross our fingers that we’d be able to get on State 207 and find a route to Mitchell.

By the time we’d pass Waldron Schoolhouse , the smoke had cleared and the traffic was light. We enjoyed the drive down to the Twickenham Road and the eastern border of Sutton Mountain.

At Mitchell we connected with Highway 26, and then took a short detour to visit the Painted Hills Unit.

We’ve been there numerous times, but this is a stop that is always worth the effort.

From there it’s back onto 26 over Ochoco Pass and dinner at the Tastee Treet.

A burger dinner on the Crooked River seemed a good way to end our day.

June 30, 2024July 26, 2024

Where There’s Smoke . . .

View of the Darlene 3 fire from outside our front door.

Wildfire has always been a threat to western forest dwellers. Over the last few years there has been an increase in the number of major . . . as in thousands of acres . . . wildland fires.

To us, the off-shoot of most of these conflagrations has been smoke plumes that randomly blanket the spaces we inhabit. We have not had to deal with a direct threat

. . . until this week when we looked out our front door.

Dubbed Darlene 3; because there were two previous fires in the same area, La Pine’s first wildfire of 2024 was reported around noon on Tuesday the 25th.

By dinnertime it had grown to 500 acres and level 3 evacuation orders (“GO NOW”) had been issued to a large number of La Pine residents.

The fire kicked up several times due to wind gusts. Here you can see several new plumes.

Many of the fire fighting resources concentrated efforts on reinforcing containment away from neighborhoods, and in our case we were grateful they prevented the fire from jumping Hwy 97 (located just past the small forest in front of our home).

For the past couple of days the fire has been sitting at nearly four thousand acres burned, with 40% contained. Thankfully it continues to receive a lot of attention from a wide range of state and local agencies.

All it would take is a shift in wind direction and this wildfire would rise to disastrous levels.

Topping off our gas tank at Wickiup Station off of Hwy 97 before heading home.

Some area neighborhoods remain at level 3. Luckily, other areas have been downgraded to level 2 BE SET to evacuate.

Winds continue to push east-southeast away from La Pine and our neighborhood. But vigilance and constant monitoring is our best course.

Watch Duty, a free app for computers or smart phones, has been a great help tracking the fire’s progress. The app allows you to identify and track wildfire even really small local burns that other online sources ignore until they are at disaster level.