Safety Tips
Following these suggestions will help you travel safely through the high desert of eastern Oregon and enjoy fragile places responsibly.
Read MoreVisitor’s Guide to Steens Mountain Region
Sean Bagshaw Website
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Carl Axelsen, member since 1999
Carl Axelsen, member since 1999
You folks at ONDA really have your stuff together. Such a well-planned opportunity to comment, since figuring out how to connect with the gummint is off-putting. You make it work for me.
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Jeremy Fox on Steens Landscape
Jeremy Fox on Steens Landscape
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Craig Terry, ONDA member and stewardship volunteer
Craig Terry, ONDA member and stewardship volunteer
“The people I have had the privilege to share time with each season keep me volunteering again and again. Who else but those ONDA staff leaders would make fresh coffee at dawn each morning or pack a watermelon all day to serve as a reward under a juniper in a steep canyon?” Craig, who grew up in northwestern Nevada, says ONDA connects him with places he loves and a mission he believes in. “My grandfather and his father put up wire fences for their ranching needs. Taking out barbed wire sort of completes a circle for me.”
Where to Stay
Primitive camping is allowed on all Bureau of Land Management lands, unless otherwise marked. For a slightly more civilized camping experience, check out one of our favorite campgrounds. Or, if you’re looking for quaint lodging, you’ll find it at the base of Steens Mountain.
Fish Lake Campground
Approximately 20 miles from Frenchglen, (7,400 feet elevation)
Visitors will find 23 campsites among aspen stands and shore willows. Camping, swimming, picnicking, cross-country hiking and fishing in Fish Lake are the most popular activities in the area.
Season: June to October.
South Steens Family & Equestrian Campgrounds
Approximately 18 miles from Highway 205 via the Steens Mountain Loop Road
Featuring 36 campsites with picnic tables and grills amid juniper and sage, this campground is close to the Historic Riddle Brothers Ranch, hiking trails and Little Blitzen and Big Indian gorges. Recreational stock (horses, mules, llamas, goats, etc.) are not allowed in the family portion of South Steens Campground, but are welcome at 15 equestrian sites complete with tie posts and small corrals.
Season: May to November.
Page Springs Campground
Approximately three miles from Frenchglen (4,200 feet elevation)
Thirty-six campsites sit under cottonwood and juniper trees near the Donner und Blitzen Wild and Scenic River at the base of Steens Mountain. A Blitzen River Trail trailhead is located within the campground, which has concrete picnic tables and fire rings, ADA-approved water lines and faucets and an ADA-accessible restroom. A volunteer camp host is generally onsite May through October.
Season: Year-round.
Jackman Park Campground
Approximately three miles beyond Fish Lake (7,800 feet elevation)
This small campground (six sites), located in aspen trees, offers some of the best fall color viewing on the mountain and is close to the Kiger Gorge Overlook.
Season: June to October.
Frenchglen Hotel
60 miles south of Burns in Frenchglen, Oregon on Highway 205
This historic hotel and their modern satellite, the Drover’s Inn, offer visitors a comfortable, quiet escape from a hectic world.
Visit www.frenchglenhotel.com.
Steens Mountain Wilderness Resort
35678 Resort Lane, Frenchglen, Oregon
This resort offers cabins, tent spaces and full hook-up RV camping, as well as showers and coin laundry. Wifi is available for overnight guests and Verizon cell coverage works here. Their small store carries a limited amount of personal items and snacks. Hikers can send themselves resupply packages here with prior arrangement.
Learn more at www.steensresort.com or call (541) 493-2415.
Where to Eat
Dining options in the Steens Mountain area are quite limited, but they are great bets if you time it right. Just be sure to bring plenty of snacks and meals with you, too.
Fields, population 14, is the southernmost hamlet in the region and food, fuel, and drinking water are all available. The Fields Cafe serves huge breakfasts and famously thick milkshakes.
The Frenchglen Hotel is located 60 miles south of Burns on Highway 205. The hotel serves breakfast, lunch and dinner (by reservation only) in their front dining room. For reservations, call (541) 493-2825 or email fghotel@yahoo.com. Visit the Frenchglen Hotel website for more details.
Recommended Hikes & Activities
To see how we define hike difficulty, please see our Hike Difficulty Ratings.
Jeremy Fox
Wildhorse Lake
Wildhorse Lake fills the bottom of a deep cirque with high surrounding walls on three sides that give way on one side to an open view of the horizon beyond. […]
Read MoreRenee Patrick
Steens Mountain Summit
On your way to the top of Steens Mountain Summit trailhead, you’ll pass by two amazing viewpoints that involve short walks—Kiger Gorge and the East Rim—and we recommend stopping at […]
Read MoreMichelle Alvarado Website
Big Indian Gorge
The Big Indian Gorge Trail is 8 miles to the headwall of the gorge and passes through meadows as well as cottonwood and aspen groves. It’s easy to follow for […]
Read MorePike Creek
An old mining track leads 1.4 miles up the canyon through a rugged rock narrows with wildflowers and views of the desert playa below. Two creek crossings can be difficult […]
Read MoreBruce Jackson Website
Little Blitzen Gorge
The Little Blitzen Gorge Trail follows the Little Blitzen River up a long, glacially carved canyon. Expect wildflowers, springs, aspen, and waterfalls. From the trailhead parking lot, walk 100 yards […]
Read More
Experience the Alvord Desert
If the desert lakebed is dry, you can hike out onto its cracked, alkali surface for a few miles to experience the remarkably empty playa and to admire Steens Mountain from below.
Outdoor Project's Alvord Desert page
Soak - or Don't! - in Hot Springs on the Alvord Desert
The Alvord Hot Springs, a privately-owned hot spring, bubbles up at 174 degrees, but cools by the time it reaches man-made sitting pools.
It's also worth exploring Mickey Hot Springs, geothermal springs on the north side the Alvord Desert that are TOO HOT for soaking.
Go Fishing
Recognized for its near pristine condition, 73 miles of the Donner und Blitzen River system are designated as a Wild and Scenic River. It's also well-known for its catch and release angling opportunities. The river flows northwesterly to the marsh lands of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Frenchglen.
You can also fish Mann Lake. Named for an early rancher, this lake has satisfied anglers seeking cutthroat trout for over 40 years. These trout are supremely well adapted to survive in alkaline desert waters, and, without them, fisheries like Mann Lake could not exist.
Check Out Volcanic Rocks
The Diamond Craters Outstanding Natural Area packs a ton of volcanic features - lava tubes, collapse craters, shield volcanoes, spatter cones, and more - into one small, accessible area. If you’re not a geologist, be sure to bring the Diamond Craters Tour Brochure along to help you tell the rhyolitic from the silica in this “museum of basaltic volcanism.”
Diamond Craters Tour Brochure
Visit a Historic Ranch
Three bachelor brothers, Walter, Frederick and Benjamin Riddle, settled here in the early 1900s and built the Riddle Brothers Ranch by gaining control of water in the area. They secured homesites and raised livestock in and around the ranch. In the late 1950s, the Riddle brothers sold their ranch holding, and, in 1986, the BLM purchased the property. The agency has since managed the ranch for its historic values.
Riddle Brothers Ranch National Historic DistrictResources
Recommended Planning Links
- First Timer’s Guide to Steens Mountain
- Travel Oregon’s Steens Loop Tour Route
- Grant’s Getaways: High Desert Discoveries – a Travel Oregon video about the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
- A Trip to Steens Mountain
- Steens Mountain Cooperative Management Area map
- Malheur National Wildlife Refuge – Blitzen Valley Audio Tour Route
Further Reading
- About the Burns Paiute Tribe
- Chinese Heritage Sites of the American West: Borax Lake
- 100 Hikes / Travel Guide: Eastern Oregon by William Sullivan
- Out Here. Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country by Ursula K. Le Guin and Roger Dorband