The first part of the route, on the Bald Mountain Trail, takes you through forest recovering from the spruce budworm outbreaks in the second half of the 20th century and up over the sagebrush “bald” of Little Bald Mountain. There are meadows all along the trail, now blooming with wildflowers, and at some point you can see across the vast lush expanse of Herren Meadow, typical of the many high prairies on the divide here between the drainage of the North Fork John Day River and Willow Creek, which runs directly north into the Columbia. I crossed the Smith Ditch, which was constructed in the 1930s by the CCC to divert water from Ditch Creek, a tributary of the North Fork John Day, over the divide at Herren Meadow and down to Willow Creek to irrigate the farm fields around Heppner. Next, I took the diversion to Gibson Cave, a large rock overhang which sheltered Native Americans for thousands of years until a man named Gibson used it as a home during the Great Depression. He walled up the overhang and installed furniture and a wood stove. None of that remains, and the interpretive sign that was here is no longer legible. You’re just left with the charcoal signatures of more modern visitors and the remains of a hunter’s camp.
The trail crosses right over the top of Little Bald Mountain, a summit similar to other sagebrush balds in the Blue Mountains that protrude from the surrounding forest. You can see north to Bald Mountain and the rolling hills of the Columbia Plateau. The summit register, a U.S. mailbox, is attached to a lone Douglas-fir.
The Bald Mountain Trail meets the Hells Half Acre Trail in the saddle between Little Bald and Bald Mountains. A visit to the top of Bald Mountain is an easy cross-country jaunt, but I had an injured foot, so decided not to attempt the uneven ground on this “rehabilitation” hike. This leg of the loop descends gently through more meadows and ponderosa pines, crossing a few creeks. The most notable feature here is the huge jumbled mass of boulders known as Earth Shake, which locals, perhaps not the most qualified geologists, aver was caused by a massive earthquake.
Hells Half Acre Trail crosses Willow Creek Road near Morrow County’s Cutsforth Park and joins the Willow Creek Trail. This path runs up to the headwaters of Willow Creek, crossing it twice, before arriving at the road near the Coalmine Hill Campground.
