Category: How-To
Learn a new skill that will help you enjoy and protect the high desert.
How to find a hot spring in the dark
ONDA’s Owyhee Canyonlands Coordinator Corie Harlan shares a lesson learned from a particularly epic trip into the Owyhee. Three hours into our drive to Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands, the AC quit working and I had a sinking feeling I’d forgotten my hiking boots – but there was no time to worry about any of that....
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Bikepacking the Steens Loop
If you’ve ever dreamed of a desert bike trip circling Steens Mountain, this post from Central Oregon Wheelers members Ben Groeneveld and Kevin Briggs won’t do anything to dissuade you.
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Appreciating Clouds
If you’ve ever looked out over the desert and wondered what type of clouds were filling the sky, you’ll love this post. We invited Maria Mudd Ruth, author of “A Sideways Look at Clouds,” to share her fascination with clouds with us, by identifying the clouds captured in images by photographers who frequently share...
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How to Stay Hydrated
Finding water in the desert can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. If you were hiking 2 million to 10,000 years ago, finding water in Eastern Oregon would be easy as the area was covered by large pluvial lakes. Today? Not so much! When you’re planning to head into Oregon’s high desert, where to...
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Birding at Malheur
A guide to watching migrating birds at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for first-time visitors. Few events will put you in touch with the rhythms of the natural world quite like watching a migration. Oregonians are lucky to have one of North America’s great animal migrations right in our backyard. Each spring and fall...
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Learn to Strut
ONDA to teach sage-grouse mating dance to all members April 1, 2018 (BEND, Ore.)—What started as a rousing way to open up staff meetings soon spread to board meetings and stewardship trips, and now, in response to high demand from our members, Oregon Natural Desert Association is excited to announce that you, too, can learn the...
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How to Take Better Images of Oregon’s High Desert
Conservation photographers share their advice: knowledge, persistence, patience The arid landscape that covers 27.6 million acres of Oregon is packed with opportunities to make interesting photographs. You can fill your frame with impressive canyons, alkali flats that tend toward abstraction or gnarled ancient juniper trees rich with character. Each year, Oregon Natural Desert Association’s...
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Going Public: Becoming a Public Land Leader
Brittany Leffel hosted a Public Land Leader gathering in December and wrote about her experience “going public”. Behind every beloved trail is a crew of stewards working to preserve the trail. Likewise, behind every wilderness area and national forest are people speaking up for our public lands. I’ve always taken pride in my...
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How to Talk to Your Friends about Public Lands
For most outdoor recreationists, talking about being out in nature comes, well, naturally. We share photos from our trips. We rave about the views we enjoyed and the wildlife we encountered. We invite our friends to join us on our next adventure. But, when it comes to talking about the policies that govern the public...
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