About the ODT

At-a-Glance

• This unmarked route is 751.7 miles, give or take. 
• Highest point on the route: 9,552’ in the Steens Mountain
• Lowest point on the route: 2,655’ at Lake Owyhee State Park
• Driest section: The first 160 miles from the western terminus in Bend to Paisley
• Longest water carry: This depends on the season. It could be about 40 miles, often much less.
• Best seasons to hike: spring and fall
• 16 different towns and cities along the route can provide hiker services.
• There are many ways to travel the route, and multi-sport information has been developed for bikes, equestrians, boats and skis/snowshoes.

If you want to cover all 750 miles, you would spend:

• 10% of your time hiking on trail
• 35% of your time navigating cross country terrain
• 50% of your time walking on unpaved or dirt roads
• 5% of your time cruising on paved roads

The Oregon Desert Trail is part of a vast connected network of long-distance trails

• The ODT ties into one National Recreation Trail: the Fremont National Recreation Trail near Lakeview and Paisley, OR. 
• The ODT shares 50.4-mile section of the Fremont National Recreation Trail with a long-distance bikepacking route –  the Oregon Timber Trail
• The ODT ties into the cross-continental Desert Trail route, which runs from Mexico to Canada, for 75 miles from South Steens Campground to the southern tip of the Pueblo Mountains. (ODT Sections 14-16)

The Backstory

One fateful night in 2010, Brent Fenty, then Oregon Natural Desert Association’s executive director, couldn’t sleep.

He lay awake, wrestling with a question: how do we introduce more people to the desert treasures he grew up exploring? For this avid outdoorsman and PCT thru-hiker, a trail that connected all the highlights of Oregon’s high desert might just be what the high desert explorers needed.

By connecting the remote and stunning regions in Oregon’s high desert like the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, the Steens Mountain, and the Owyhee Canyonlands with a trail, hikers could be immersed in the lands ONDA has been striving to protect for 30 years. Perhaps introducing more people to these amazing landscapes could help foster a sense of responsibility to protect, defend, and restore Oregon’s high desert for generations to come.

Route Development

What arose as a wisp of an idea in 2010, soon became a dream for a new long-distance trail, and then that dream began to become reality in 2011. From 2011 to 2014, Oregon Desert Trail Coordinator Jeremy Fox kicked off the development by taking stock of the existing infrastructure that crossed the desert, using ONDA conservation successes and priorities across eastern Oregon as a guiding framework.

Several existing trail systems provided the backbone of the ODT including the Fremont National Recreation Trail, Steens Mountain Wilderness Trails, and Desert Trail. The trail took shape not as a straight line from one point of interest to another, but as a winding line through the scenic and remote landscapes of southeastern Oregon.

After thousands of hours of volunteer and staff work inventorying and ground-truthing the route, the Oregon Desert Trail emerged as an immersive desert experience that can be explored through cross-country travel, old roads, and existing trail.

The Future

What does the future of the Oregon Desert Trail look like? Here are some thoughts:

Keep the route a route: The Oregon Desert Trail is a “virtual trail,” and completing the route in its entirety is a very challenging backcountry adventure. We believe there is a place for a remote route like this in the growing list of long distance backpacking experiences. Instead of building trail, we see the Oregon Desert Trail as an opportunity to teach hikers and other quiet recreationists how to responsibly travel through our eastern Oregon desert landscapes.

Helping more hikers really get to know Oregon’s desert: To hike a section or more of the ODT, hikers need to be present and tuned into their surroundings in order to be successful. This level of attention provides an opportunity for hikers to understand the desert on a deeper level…and really know Oregon’s desert landscapes. We want to facilitate the hiking experience to provide a truly immersive adventure so that hikers/bikers/equestrians/boaters/skiers can learn about the geology, flora and fauna, Native American and homesteading history, and more about the present livelihoods and culture of eastern Oregon.

Connect hikers and other forms of quiet recreation to ONDA’s conservation work: Oregon Natural Desert Association’s mission is to protect, restore and defend Oregon’s desert areas, and hikers can help us in these efforts. We’ve developed a series of conservation actions hikers can take while on the route, and after traveling through our incredible high desert landscapes we hope folks will be inspired to join us in our work as a member or a volunteer on a future stewardship trip.