Wild Horses couldn’t drag me away! Apologizes to the Rolling Stones!

If you look at the map of southeastern Oregon you see an empty quarter with one significant geological formation: Steens Mountain. We kept hearing about The Steens while travelling around Oregon. ‘You have to see The Steens’, people would say. Then we camped with a guy who said you need to see the wild horses on The Steens! Cool, wild horses!

It turns out, one of the few remaining herds of wild horses left in North America are there. But, it just looked too empty, too hot, and too distant, so we wrote it off for another day or another trip. Fast forward and we are poking around northern Nevada and we see Steens Mountain is only a jump north (a couple of hundred miles jump). We have to go!

On the way there, we wild camp at a remote hot springs in northern Nevada after driving over the mountains and through a snow squall (see previous blog). In the morning we set off through the beautiful snow ringed mountains north into the empty quarter, and up Steens Mountain to see the wild horses!

We were not disappointed! To see something so wild living in its natural state is always a gift. We have been lucky in our travels to see many such creatures but for me, this was by far the most majestic. The independent, free spirit of these magnificent souls was clearly evident in their eyes.

Be Careful What You Wish For

The high 90 degree heat of summer broke a couple of weeks ago and now it’s snowing! We are exploring northern Nevada and it is snowing as we travel over the passes. Fortunately we are heading for a camping spot at a wild hot springs! The snow was beautiful, but we had hoped for a bit of a longer transition from summer to winter!

Driving up and over
Gorgeous!
We camped right next to this hot spring. It warmed our bones before the low 20 degree night’s sleep. Good thing we bought extra blankets in town!
Another hot spring down the road. This one would boil the skin right off your bones! As a matter of fact, there were some animal bones in the bottom.
Sun through the snow storm.
What a gorgeous, if chilly, view to wake up to.