Steens Mountain

Between roughly fifteen and eight million years ago, floods of basalt lava built this ground up in layer after layer, thousands of feet thick. Then movement along a fault on the eastern side lifted and tilted the entire block, hinged along its western edge like a trap door swung open to the sky. That is why Steens has such a strange, lopsided shape: from the west you barely notice you are on a mountain as the road rises gradually across sage and aspen, and only at the very top does the ground vanish beneath you in a cliff that plunges nearly a mile to the desert.

During the Ice Age, glaciers settled into the high folds of the mountain and slowly carved it, grinding out four enormous U-shaped gorges, Kiger, Little Blitzen, Big Indian, and Wildhorse. Kiger Gorge is the showpiece, a clean, sweeping glacial valley about half a mile deep, its walls so smoothly scooped that it looks almost sculpted. Short walks and overlooks along the loop let you stand at the lip of these canyons and read the whole story of ice on rock.

In 1977 the Bureau of Land Management found a herd of wild horses on and around Steens whose bloodline, later confirmed by DNA testing, traces largely back to the Spanish horses brought to North America in the 1600s. These are the Kiger mustangs, prized for their dun coats, dark dorsal stripes, and tough, compact build, and they became so admired that the breed is now bred and sought after far beyond Oregon. The Kiger Mustang Viewing Area east of Frenchglen is the classic place to try to spot a band of them running free.

The mustangs are only part of the wildlife. Bighorn sheep negotiate the rocky rim, and pronghorn, mule deer, and elk range the slopes below. At the mountain's foot lie the wetlands of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, one of the great bird stopovers of the West, so a trip to Steens easily pairs a day of high-country overlooks with a morning of marsh birding down on the flats.

The Steens Mountain Loop, a backcountry byway of roughly fifty-nine miles beginning near Frenchglen, is the highest road in the state, topping out close to 9,700 feet. It is gravel and it is remote, and it only opens for a short summer window, usually early July into mid-October, before snow shuts it down again. Driving it slowly, stopping at the overlooks, is the heart of a Steens visit.

The moment everyone remembers comes at the East Rim Viewpoint. You walk to the edge and the world simply drops away, nearly a mile down to the flat white bed of the Alvord Desert, with basin and range marching off to the horizon. On a clear day the view runs past Oregon's borders into three other states. It is the kind of overlook that makes people go quiet, a reminder of just how big and empty this corner of the country still is.

Because it is so high and so far from anywhere, Steens is also one of the darkest places in Oregon. When night comes the Milky Way pours across the sky from rim to rim, and with no towns and no cell service for many miles, the silence is as complete as the dark.

Steens rises south of Burns, and the loop road runs up from Frenchglen, a tiny historic outpost with a store and a handful of rooms at the mountain's base. Because the byway only opens in summer and is gravel and rough in places, come prepared: a full tank, water and food, a spare tire, and a vehicle that can handle backcountry road. There is no cell service on the mountain and no fuel or supplies, so stock up in Burns or Frenchglen first.

Give the loop most of a day so you can linger at Kiger Gorge, the East Rim, and the wildflower meadows, and start early to beat afternoon weather, which can turn cold and stormy at the rim even in July. Watch for the mustangs, walk out to at least one canyon overlook, and if you can, stay for the stars. Steens rewards patience: it is not a quick photo stop but a whole day of driving into one of the wildest, highest, and loneliest landscapes Oregon has.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.