Cottonwood Canyon: Starvation Bend and Hard Stone Trail 5-15-18

This forum is used to share your experiences out on the trails.
Post Reply
User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Cottonwood Canyon: Starvation Bend and Hard Stone Trail 5-15-18

Post by bobcat » May 20th, 2018, 9:50 am

I embarked upon a multi-day camping trip to the east little realizing it would be prematurely terminated. My first stop was at Cottonwood Canyon, Oregon’s second largest state park, where I drove Starvation Lane out to a landing on the John Day River (I had seen this as an opportunity last year, when I investigated the Hay Creek Canyon section of the park right across the river). The road, although designated as “primitive”, seems to have been recently upgraded to all-weather gravel. On the hairpin bends going down the canyon slopes, a couple of relics have been left as eye candy. A deer and a pair of chukars emerged from the shade of the first of these as I checked it out.

Rusting hulk, Starvation Lane, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Abandoned flatbed, Starvation Lane, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
View to Twenty-nine Mile Cliff, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg

I took a farm track leading south. Unfortunately the cheatgrass, an invasive Eurasian species that donates the russet blush to these hills, was in full flower, and dozens of seed spikelets began insinuating themselves into my boots and socks. The compensation was an almost overwhelming sweet perfume from a few Russian olives (also an invasive), which were in full bloom. Rusting farm equipment protruded from the barley fields, which are now self-seeding. I arrived at the Coy Place: I’ll call it that after George W. Coy, the first farmer here in 1883 – I don’t know who left the old Chevy, the camper turned chicken coop, or the collapsed shed.

View to Hay Creek Canyon, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Plow, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Mouth of Sage Hollow, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Looking to the Coy Place, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Antique grass cutter, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Camper turned coop, Coy Place, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Barley, Coy Place, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Tank at the Coy Place, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Remains of a structure, Coy Place, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Chevy at the Coy Place, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg

I continued on to the gate marking the beginning of a private inholding within the park (I’ll call this plot Gibson’s after the first homesteader).

The cheatgrass track, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Pearhip rose (Rosa woodsii), Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Looking upriver to the Gibson Place, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Irrigation pump, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Gate to the Gibson Place, Starvation Bend, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg

From here. I scrambled 880 feet up the slope above a dry waterfall to the loess plateau above the canyon, gathering cheatgrass stickers all the way. Then I ambled across the sagebrush grassland, getting views of windmills and Mt. Adams one way and the wheat fields of Gilliam County on the other. Above the mouth of Hay Creek, I made the steep descent to my car.

Above the dry falls, Starvation Ridge, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Desert yellow daisy (Erigeron linearis), Starvation Ridge, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Looking north from the Starvation Crest, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Shaggy fleabane (Erigeron pumilus var. intermedius), Starvation Crest, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Looking down on the Coy Place, Starvation Crest, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Looking up Hay Creek Canyon, Starvation Crest, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Cushion fleabane (Erigeron poliospermus), Starvation Crest, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Gray rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa var. speciosus), Starvation Ridge, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
View to trailhead, Starvation Ridge, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg

By now temperatures were 100 degrees at the bottom of the canyon, so I drove to the Lone Tree Campground and bagged a site ($10; designated as “primitive”, but it was luxury to me: clean toilets, a shaded picnic table, fresh drinking water, a windbreak for the tent). I spent a few hours relaxing in the heat of the day, reading, picking the cheatgrass spikes out of my socks, and observing the line of bighorn sheep strung out against the skyline on the Gooseneck Ridge.

Official parks truck (budget cuts), Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
At Lonetree Campground, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg

At about 5:30, when temperatures were down to 95, I decided to wander along the Hard Stone Trail, a flat hike using a farm road heading north from the highway bridge. Soon into the hike, I scrambled up the slope to get a squint at a blooming thistle. Stepping back down to the road, my foot turned in my boot, I heard a distinct SNAP as I came crashing down, and I found myself writhing in agony on the Hard Stone. After several minutes of whimpers alternating with curses, I gingerly tested my left ankle, and then stood up. The pain was rather exquisite, but I decided to test it a few paces. My remedy in such situations is to “use it” rather than let it seize up (If something goes SNAP, then it should snap back again at some point was my reasoning), so I broke out a trekking pole for support and continued on the hike.

Trailhead, Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Dalmatian toad-flax (Linaria dalmatica), Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg

I passed some low stone walls, probably the remains of a sheep fold, in a grove of hackberry trees, rounded the sharp bend at Big Eddy, and limped out to the tip of the bend at river mile 42. Then I had to hike all the way back again: a total of 4 ½ miles in and out on a rapidly swelling ankle. I staggered around my camp site that evening and retired early. Things felt a little better in the morning, but knew I couldn’t hike any more, so drove home to find my foot had turned, somewhat alarmingly, into a giant blue and purple club. We put it up and applied lots of ice, found an X-ray wasn’t necessary, and, three days later, everything is almost back to normal.

View to Big Eddy Cliffs, Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Ramparts above John Day River, Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Hackberry and stone walls, Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Bench on the Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
At Big Eddy, Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
View downriver from Big Eddy, Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Cliffs at 42 Mile Bend, Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg
Temple of Hatshepsut, 42 Mile Bend, Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.jpg

User avatar
retired jerry
Posts: 14398
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Cottonwood Canyon: Starvation Bend and Hard Stone Trail 5-15-18

Post by retired jerry » May 20th, 2018, 11:49 am

I did that a couple months ago. I suggest that's a better time - not so hot :)

I did MacDonald Lane a bit North of Starvation Lane. I was looking for the Oregon Trail which I found a bit of, but not worth the effort.

Thanks for putting all that in the Field Guide, that was helpful.

User avatar
BurnsideBob
Posts: 534
Joined: May 6th, 2014, 3:15 pm
Location: Mount Angel, Oregon

Re: Cottonwood Canyon: Starvation Bend and Hard Stone Trail 5-15-18

Post by BurnsideBob » May 21st, 2018, 8:42 am

Thanks, Bobcat, for the virtual tour of Cottonwood. I've long been curious about this State Park and now I know to go in early April!
I keep making protein shakes but they always turn out like margaritas.

User avatar
retired jerry
Posts: 14398
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Cottonwood Canyon: Starvation Bend and Hard Stone Trail 5-15-18

Post by retired jerry » May 21st, 2018, 8:57 am

I'd argue December to February is better. Or March. You have to look at weather reports though to make sure it's not too cold or snowy.

This is even better than the Deschutes River in the winter wet season if you want to avoid rain. It does rain there a little.

It can be very windy.

Post Reply