Rancho Rioja

My sister and I went for a walk, joined by a few thousand mosquitoes, after dinner on our first night at the Hotel Diamond. The sun had just set, bringing out the contrast in this jellyfish cloud floating above a green field, and the trees and mesa beyond.

I had been hoping we would come upon a stand of aspens as we drove up the shoulder of the Steens Mountain. I wanted to try capturing these beautiful trees using very slow shutter speeds while moving the camera. When it works, the image produced looks painterly, or even surreal. Out of twenty or so frames, this one was my favorite.

And this one was my second favorite. In the top half, in the streaks of blue and white light, you can really see the shake I put on the camera while the shutter was open.

Elizabeth Kavanaugh, sister extraordinaire, enjoys the payoff to our five-mile hike up from where the Steens Loop Road was gated off to vehicles. A week or two later in the summer, we would have been able to drive up to the summit of the Steens Mountain. This is Kiger Gorge, perhaps the most breathtaking of the glacial valleys on the mountain.

Originally I had wanted to watch the sun rise from the top of the Steens on my birthday. When we found out the road was not yet open, we decided to sleep in instead, then just see how far up we could go. Once we came upon the closed gate, and started hiking, we had no idea how far we would go. After walking about an hour, we came upon a couple on their way down who told us we were a mile from the Kiger overlook. It turned out to be ten miles roundtrip, and so well worth it.

Near the end of our hike to the Kiger Gorge overlook, I noticed this spray of purple flowers growing from a crevice in lichen-covered rocks.

And this circle of flower pops, growing right in the middle of the road.

We got up at three in the morning to make the two-hour drive from the Hotel Diamond around the Steens Mountain to the Alvord Desert in time to see the sun come up. If I wore a hat, I would doff it in tribute to my sister and her enthusiasm for making this early morning run. The light was gorgeous.

As the sun came up and beamed on the landscape, I pulled the Subaru over every few miles when something appealing caught my eye. Elizabeth would seize each opportunity to survey the ground for agate, quartz, jasper—she has become an avid rockhound.

Gazing through the barbed wire fence of what I'm fairly sure is the Alvord Ranch.

The Steens Mountain is a thirty-mile-long fault block mountain in southeastern Oregon. Its east face, seen here, rises a vertical mile from the desert floor to a summit at nearly 10,000 feet of altitude.

Elizabeth gathered both rocks and vegetation while I gathered pictures.

Cracks open and distances widen.

I love this picture of my sister looking pretty badass, the Subaru parked out on the Alvord playa where I'd been shooting the cracked tile earth. My brother-in-law likes this one, too. 

This photo just about encapsulates the whole road trip, featuring my traveling companion, the vehicle and both destinations: the Steens Mountain in the background, and the Alvord Desert in the foreground.

Comapare this to the black & white version in the Summer Monochrome gallery.

This is a slightly different view of the Alvord Desert reaching up to the base of the Steens Mountain.

I love the way this cloud, settled over the Alvord playa, wisps up and out of the frame. This is definitely one of the images I like better in black & white.

Hiking into Pike Creek Canyon on the east face of the Steens, I noticed these brush wisps of cloud above the canyon wall.

A dandelion, or some similar plant, gone to seed like a spherical galaxy, alongside the trail in Pike Creek Canyon.

After a long, dusty morning of driving, hiking, collecting rocks, and hunting images, dipping into the Alvord Hot Springs was a pleasure. Justin, the ranch hand who had weekend duty at the springs, shared rockhounding stories and locations with Elizabeth. He jumped into his trailer to fetch some of his agates and thunder eggs to show us.