The Annual Spring Trip to SE Oregon

Mickey Hot Springs

This year Alan and I traveled to Mickey Basin, Coyote Playa, and the Trout Creek Mountains as part of our annual trek to Oregon's Great Basin.  Somehow, through all of these years of roaming around Steens Mountain, neither one of us had yet made it to Mickey Hot Springs.  We fixed that problem and were treated to a "little Yellowstone" under the east face of Steens.  The hot springs were very interesting, but Mickey Basin, just to the north, was the real surprise.  Here is a playa located at the lowest point in the northern Great Basin ringed by rugged peaks and dotted with lush freshwater artesian spring mounds and tufa deposits.  I have never seen spring mounds nor have I noticed tufa in Oregon.  We spent the night at the edge of the playa and explored the basin.  Later we found out that Big Horn sheep inhabit the flanks of Mickey Butte, which we need to come back and climb.  Great spot.  We also saw, and for the first time, walked on Coyote Playa.  These are some of the driest and most remote spots in Oregon.  A planned exploration of the area around Big Sand Gap was cut short by heat and the desire to head to Steens Mountain (and get a milkshake in Fields).  We spend a night on Pike Creek and hiked up a fabulous BLM trail into the amphitheater formed by the headwaters of the creek.  Afterwards it was off to the Trout Creeks and yet more new territory for us.  We obviously needed better maps and were thwarted in our efforts to reach Oregon Canyon Mountain but, again, we will be back. 

Mickey Basin

Mickey Butte from spring mound in Mickey Basin

Between the dust storm and the thunderstorm

Coyote Playa

Pike Creek, Steens Mountain

In the Trout Creek Mountains

Moonrise in the Trout Creeks