The access road is all in sagebrush. This year I had to cross a total of two rather easy snowbanks.
A small opening in the woods around Nye's Place is actually an old jeep trail that leads to Little Fish Creek.
Nye's Place on Steens Mtn
Nye's Place on Steens Mtn
On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend I hiked out to Nye's Place on Steens Mtn. My purpose is always birding, and this time of May is the best for Harney County. The Jackman Park gate on the north road is always closed in late May due to snow. So you need to hike up from Jackman Park to the access road for Grove and Little Fish Creek, down the access road leads to Nye's Place. Once the gate is open and the access road is dry, you can drive the 4.25 miles I hiked just to get to the area.
The access road is all in sagebrush. This year I had to cross a total of two rather easy snowbanks.
Green-tailed Towhees are one of the more common birds up there this time of year.
The aspen groves have not leafed out, but they are beautiful.
The two cabins at Nye's Place, the first is rather rundown.
The larger second cabin is open for campers.
Inside:
Simple rules:
A short trail leads to the edge of the Blitzen Gorge:
A small opening in the woods around Nye's Place is actually an old jeep trail that leads to Little Fish Creek.
Too much water now to walk down creek:
I also took a look at the top of Grove Creek. That is an old growth aspen grove down there, just beautiful. I was looking for a subspecies of Fox Sparrow in that brush patch.
From Jackman Park to the cabins, up and down the streams was a total of about 13.5 miles. You can cut over from one stream to the other, I decided against that route due to wet ground. Great day.
The access road is all in sagebrush. This year I had to cross a total of two rather easy snowbanks.
Green-tailed Towhees are one of the more common birds up there this time of year.
The aspen groves have not leafed out, but they are beautiful.
The two cabins at Nye's Place, the first is rather rundown.
The larger second cabin is open for campers.
Inside:
Simple rules:
A short trail leads to the edge of the Blitzen Gorge:
A small opening in the woods around Nye's Place is actually an old jeep trail that leads to Little Fish Creek.
Too much water now to walk down creek:
I also took a look at the top of Grove Creek. That is an old growth aspen grove down there, just beautiful. I was looking for a subspecies of Fox Sparrow in that brush patch.
From Jackman Park to the cabins, up and down the streams was a total of about 13.5 miles. You can cut over from one stream to the other, I decided against that route due to wet ground. Great day.
Re: Nye's Place on Steens Mtn
Thanks for the info. I had not heard of these cabins before. Did you get to see your fox sparrow?
Re: Nye's Place on Steens Mtn
Yep. found a few, Thick-billed subspecies. Slate-colored is other subspecies, I suspect they hang out lower down along streams. No one is sure of the Fox Sparrow subspecies on Steens, very similar birds.
Re: Nye's Place on Steens Mtn
Very cool! Did you get to see the big storms pass through the area on Friday of that week?
Believe it or not, I barely ever ride a mountain bike.
Re: Nye's Place on Steens Mtn
Yep, I was south of there behind Pueblo Mtn trying to get out near TenCent Meadow. I looked at sky changing and turned back to car. Got back to car with 20 min to spare. Full force of storm skipped Fields but still had some hard rain and strong winds. Burns got clobbered. Awesome sight seeing storm come up from south.