I camped a night under rustling aspens on Bond Creek in the Hart Mountain NAR. The next day, I did a couple of shorter hikes, both described in Sullivan’s Eastern Oregon guide, before moving on.
Barnhardy Cabin Loop
This was a cross-country jaunt up Rock Creek from the campground. Since they’ve taken the cattle off the range here, the creekside thickets have grown back, so sometimes I had to head up the sagebrush slopes. The dried carcasses of culled junipers were scattered across the hillsides (Junipers have proliferated in what was open range because of fire suppression). I dislodged a few deer from their shady retreats in the willows. At some point the shrubs disappeared, and Rock Creek was meandering through a lush open meadow blooming with irises. Warner Peak was dead ahead topping the long ridge of Hart Mountain.
Hiking up the creek, I crossed Barnhardy Road, still closed to the public at this time of year, with Barnhardy Cabin, a line shack used for shelter in the livestock era, visible ahead in its grove of aspen. Below the cabin, in Barnhardy Meadow, is an orange SNOTELT site used to collect snow data (The data is now transmitted by telemetry, but this is a repurposed aerial marker - an overflight by a survey plane would simply look at snow depth where it measured on the horizontal orange bars). The notch above the cabin is the beginning of DeGarmo Canyon. After inspecting the cabin (There’s only the stove pipe remaining for appliances/furnishings), I continued the loop along Barnhardy Road, getting high views down to the hot springs before descending for a solitary dip in the outdoor pool. Very refreshing!
Petroglyph Lake
I parked off the road near the rim where the entrance road descends to the Warner Lakes, and then hiked cross-country towards the rim on Poker Jim Ridge. The vegetation here is kept low by the almost constant wind. There was one irregular prominence on the near horizon and, walking towards it, I realized it was a human cluttered with all sorts of sensitive gear. He wasn’t too happy to see me; in fact, he was involved in a sage grouse research project, and I supposed my unexpected appearance in the empty landscape had somewhat scuttled his plans for the day. After a brief chat, I departed for the rim to get views down to the spread of the Warner Lakes and south to the Rabbit Hills and Crane Mountain. My goal was a prominence on the rim, Knoll 5936, which hosted a few scattered junipers and a view north to the magnificent west wall of Poker Jim Ridge.
From the knoll, I could see east across the open landscape to a couple of lakes. Petroglyph Lake was the closest, so I set my sights for its north shore, and scrambled down off the knoll for a cross-country ramble. As the lake hove into view again, a group of about 30 antelope lollygagging down by the lakeshore spotted me on the horizon and made off. Above the west shore of the lake is a low rim of basalt, which harbors at least 65 panels of petroglyphs. The north section of this rim has the most as the basalt has smooth faces with a dark veneer of rock varnish suitable for sketching. I almost stepped on a two-foot rubber boa, which then disappeared down a crack before I could snap a picture. The more weathered center of the rim has no petroglyphs, and there are a few more on the south end. On my amble back to the road, I startled a sage grouse pair about where I had encountered the researcher!
Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge 6-26-18
- retired jerry
- Posts: 14398
- Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Re: Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge 6-26-18
I went there several years ago, interesting area
Did you try the hot springs? It was very pleasant. "Interesting" people around.
Did you try the hot springs? It was very pleasant. "Interesting" people around.
Re: Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge 6-26-18
Yes, of course. I used the outdoor pool (last picture in the Barnhardy sequence), which is just as hot as the stone-walled structure and offers much better views!
- retired jerry
- Posts: 14398
- Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Re: Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge 6-26-18
I thought it was hotter, I did the structure
- MariposaMan
- Posts: 40
- Joined: April 14th, 2014, 10:04 pm
- Location: Eugene, OR
Re: Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge 6-26-18
Nice report! I made a similar visit several years ago, in mid-September (good weather. but brown and no wildflowers, of course). Very interesting and scenic landscape. The mostly cross-country trek up Warner Mtn. was worth the effort. I'd like to go back--in June, most likely, and hike up Degarmo Canyon.