Bob DenOuden's Pacific Northwesterner: Catching up on some sites in the Owyhee Canyonlands

Malheur Cave

I spent a long weekend visiting some spots in the Owyhee Canyonlands that I had not been to previously. For some reason, over the years I had not gotten to either Three Forks or Chalk Basin; other destinations had pulled me away. A perfect opportunity to rectify this situation came when I set up a trip with my brother and a friend who had never been to the Owyhee before. Along the way we knocked off a couple of other first stops; Crystal Crane Hot Springs and Malheur Cave. The hot springs were a wonderful first night late arrival. The cave was a bit of a surprise for me since for some reason I hadn't realized it was a lava tube - a huge one at that.
Three Forks was, of course, a scenic place, but a tad disappointing. First off there were quite a few people there. This spring has turned out to be a fantastic water year for the Owyhee and the river runners have turned up in large numbers. Three Forks is a river put-in site so people were coming and going throughout the day. The other disappointment was related; high water levels in the Owyhee kept us from making it to the hot springs at Three Forks. It will have to wait for another trip.
Chalk Basin provided no disappointment whatsoever. Here we found solitude, a great camp site, wonderful hiking exploration, and great desert wildflowers. Definitely worth the effort of a slow 25 mile dirt road. With these sites now visited I will have to find other lures to pull me out to the Owyhee, of which there are myriad.