Oregon Mine Campground, Malheur National Forest, Oregon

A couple of years ago me and my then boyfriend, rented a guard station out in the Malheur National Forest, and when we were there I drove through Oregon Mine Campground to check it out. It has been on my list as a place to return to with my horse ever since. When we were at the guard station we spent three days hiking around, and not once did we see a wild horse, but this time my luck had changed and I saw quite a few of the Murderers Creek Mustangs that roam this forest!

John Young Meadows.

Oregon Mine is 15 miles from Hwy 26, near Mt. Vernon, Oregon, but the roads are paved the entire way. When I got there several of the bigger spots had tents in them, so I decided to disperse camp nearby instead. There is a junction where you turn right from Rd. 21 onto Rd. 2170 and in the following mile before you get to the camp there are several large dispersed spots on the left hand side of the road. I picked the last one, nearest to Oregon Mine. 

The junction, camp is a mile straight ahead.

My dispersed camping spot.

I got tacked up right away for my first ride, and decided to head over in the general direction of a big meadow I remembered seeing on my previous visit. The first part of the ride was along the pavement, it's a quiet area, traffic is scarce, and I passed by the Murderers Creek Guard Station (not the one we stayed at, but you can rent this one as well )

Murderers Creek Guard Station.

The only slightly annoying thing about this area is the amount of fenced off parcels of land, cattle guards, and creeks that also have fences on either side of them. It's all public land, and there are a lot of  ways to get around, or in and out of some of the parcels, but it does require regularly dismounting and fiddling with a plethora of wire gates.

There are no designated trails right nearby, but one of the fun things about this area is the amount of trails that the cows and horses have made, they are everywhere, and so if you feel like it you can follow some of those for awhile. 

Wild horses make some very solid well used trails.

I was almost to the meadow and as I was doing a shortcut down a hill, through some grazing cows, I smelled the unmistakable aroma of death, and came across the carcasses of two wild horses. That seemed strange to me, one would be a possibility, but not two in the same place. I got an answer to this puzzle quite soon. I was about to get off my horse at yet another cattle guard, when a forest service guy drove by and I stopped him to ask if he knew about the dead horses. It turns out that not only did he know about them, he had been the one to place them there. The story, sadly, is that these two young bachelor studs had gotten caught up in the very cattle guard I was right next to, and had broken their legs. This had happened about a month previously, and the forest service guy had found them entangled, and had to euthanize them. 

Lots of cows with the exact same color scheme as my pony.

After visiting the meadow area, and finding no mustangs there, I took a different route back, mostly on old unused roads. At one point the road I was on dead ended, but I found another one of those awesome horse made trails to follow from there. Wild horses aren't sissies, they don't make switchbacks like us humans, so if there is a hill involved, they just go straight up it. So as I was making my way down a very steep slope, I suddenly heard a horse sneeze. I had found some of the mustangs!

Zoomed in on a nearby fire lookout.

Finding a plethora of stallion piles in the meadows.

There were four bachelors below me, and I didn't want to ride right into their midst, so I popped up onto a hill and spied on them from above. They were all congregating in one spot, pawing at the dirt, so I figured they had found themselves some of what I call "mineral mud". I watched for awhile, took some photos and then snuck down the opposite side of the hill. A couple more bachelors came out of the forest and joined them, but none of them spotted me and my pony.

Spying on a bachelor band.

They are digging in the mineral mud.

After that I headed back over to my nifty spot, with just the right amount of shade, located right by the creek. There were a few mosquito's and a few ticks to watch out for, but otherwise a perfect camping area.

Murderers Creek, right beside my camp spot.

Oregon Mine is a free camp and has five spots, #1 and #5 are the easiest to get a bigger rig into. The camp road is a loop and #1 and #2 have their own little offshoot loop. There is a bathroom, picnic tables and fire rings, and although the forest service website says there is a corral, there is not. This is one of many campgrounds in Oregon, that back in the day were built as horse camps but once horse people stopped using them, they became regular campgrounds. The creek is nearby, but I am glad I picked my dispersed spot because access to the creek from the camp is quite boggy. In fact I checked all of the other dispersed spots on that road, and out of all of them the one that I had inadvertently parked at had the best and easiest access to water. Ironically, I had brought my own water and didn't actually need it.

Oregon Mine Campground.

A forest service tent in site #5.

The following day I decided to try and ride to, or at least near Fields Peak. The actual trailhead is back quite a few miles towards the highway, but there was a dirt road heading in that direction, so I thought I would try it. It didn't actually get me there, but I climbed up quite a ways and had some nice views of the peak, and the ride started off following Tex Creek, which was very pretty. Not everybody likes to ride on roads, but in lieu of trails, or in areas where trails are not cleared, at least I know that in most cases I can actually get somewhere on roads.

The junction where I started the second ride. There is a pullout and a hitching rail.

Shady forest, on an old road.

Riding beside Tex Creek.

Views of Fields Peak.

At least I know roads will be cleared.

Once I reached a saddle and the road was heading back down the other side, I turned around, but on the way back I decided to cross Tex Creek and follow some more wild horse trails. As I was doing so I stumbled across a big meadow and spotted another herd of horses. This was a typical large band with mares and quite a few foals that were having afternoon naps. So I went back into stealth mode, left my pony behind a tree and walked a little closer to take photos ( I use a camera, with a zoom, so I was trying to get a better angle through the trees) 

Rina staying incognito while I try to photograph the herd.

Napping foals!

I wasn't getting great shots, but I also didn't want to alert them and disturb their day, so I went back to my pony and we tried to sneak away. Unfortunately once I was back on the road, they spotted us and after a moment of hesitation to check us out, they all galloped off like the wind.

On day three I decided to see where road 2170 continued on to, past the camp. There is yet another gate and cattle guard right at the camp, and as I was struggling to close it, (it was missing the rather important wire loop) I heard a whinny. A little bachelor had spotted my horse and was greeting her, but seemed rather confused as to why he was not getting an answer, and trying to figure out what kind of contraptions she had on her body. I finally finished with the gate and walked over to where he could see me, at which point he took off like a rocket.

The lone bachelor took off when he saw me.

The road stays paved for quite a while, then splits, and eventually becomes gravel. I was surprised to come across a rather large piece of private property. Kind of a fancy place with an airstrip, not the rustic shacks you usually find off grid, in the middle of nowhere. I looked it up when I got home and it sold for 1.5 million, and encompasses 160 acres, a little piece of paradise.

I took a side road and saw many fresh stallion piles and hoof prints, and then eventually came across an old dwelling.

Flowers are blooming! 

Large Flowered Clarkia.

Came across this old dwelling.

 After stopping for lunch, I decided to try to cut straight across, over the mountain to get back to camp, instead of going back the same way. I always like to make a loop if I can, even if it requires just winging it. I knew I would run into a fence line, but I figured I would risk it. I hadn't gone far, before I heard some more horses. I stopped my pony and two bachelors came down the hill through some trees not very far from me. They did not see me, so I just watched them for awhile. Eventually I had to move along, at which point I got surprised looks from them, but they weren't as flighty as all the others had been.

The road I was following dead ended at a water trough, so from there I rode cross country until I hit the inevitable fence line. I had no choice but to follow along beside it for awhile, and then lo and behold, I found a random gate, bush whacked down a hill on the other side, and found another road that led me straight back to camp.

Lunch time.

Taking a side road as a shortcut over the mountain.

A couple more bachelors in the trees.

Up on the hill.

Arriving back at camp meant taking a quick break and then getting on the road to drive back home. 

I'm going to assume this forest would be a busy place during hunting season, but other than a more than usual amount of forest service people driving around, (I learned they were having a meeting in the area), it's a pretty non populated and serene place to be.

GPS COORDINATES TO OREGON MINE

Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge and Chewaucan Crossing Campground, Oregon

Well that was a long winter, and then suddenly....it is finally warm enough to camp. This was also my maiden voyage with my "new to me" trailer that I bought last fall. Love it, and everything works!

Chewaucan Crossing.

I decided to head over to Chewaucan Crossing which makes it the sixth camp that I have ridden the Fremont National Recreation Trail from. I have camped at Silver Creek Marsh and ridden to Antler Trailhead, camped at Farmwell, Currier Spring and Moss Meadow. I enjoy the wide open spaces, remoteness and solitude of this area. There might be a few other people in some of the campgrounds, but I've never encountered another human being while on this particular trail, that runs for nearly 150 miles.

But first, on the way there, I stopped at the Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge. This is ODFW land so you need to go online first and get a parking pass/permit which costs $10.00. Once on the refuge there are several areas for parking and four primitive campgrounds. The gravel road is in good shape but there are sections that are narrow, with water on either side, so if you meet someone coming the other way, one of you will have to back up. 

There is an 8.3 mile driving loop for wildlife viewing so a few people might be doing that, but generally it's a pretty quiet place, and you can see someone coming for miles. The camping areas are large, with bathrooms and picnic tables and all of the side roads and dikes are closed to motor vehicles, so you can ride or hike on them in order to explore all of the different areas.

The second of four large camping areas.

I started out riding south right from the campground on Bullgate Dike, which eventually dead ended, so then I followed an offshoot dike, which took me out into more of an alkali area. There was a wooden tower that I was headed straight towards, and when I looked up I spotted an owl observing me from above. Not surprisingly, since Summer Lake is known for bird watching, there were a plethora of different kinds of birds, including a lot of white pelicans and some type of swan. It wasn't just birds that were flying around though. When I first started the ride I passed by some bushes and dislodged a giant swarm of some sort of fly. The flies proceeded to stick with me en masse for nearly the entire first half of the ride. This wasn't as unpleasant as it may sound, they swarmed directly behind and above my head in a huge cloud, like I was Pigpen, but they weren't landing on, or biting me or my horse.

Riding on Bullgate Dike.

Views of Winter Rim.

Quite a few white pelicans.

Looking over to a tower.

Lots of alkali in certain areas.

Found this guy up in the tower.

After I hit another dead end, I turned around, went back to the truck, had some snacks, and then did a second ride, heading towards some old buildings I could see in the distance. This turned out to be remnants of an old ranch and another parking area, but I was on the wrong side of a cable gate, that I couldn't get my horse through or around, so I followed another two track along the Ana River until I got to camping area number one, and I was able to do a loop back to my truck from there.

The fourth camping area has some old ranch buildings.

Nice old barn.

Inside the old barn.

These two had collars on them.

After my ride I drove about an hour over to Chewaucan Crossing Campground/ Trailhead which is about 8 miles outside of Paisley on a paved road. There were a couple of big RV's parked in the spots closest to the water and after looking at the remaining spots I just decided to park slightly outside of the actual camp loop, where I had a grassy area to put up my corral. 

Chewaucan Crossing has easy access on a paved road.

Chewaucan Crossing Campground.

 Chewaucan Crossing is a free camp and has five sites, all are back-in except for one that is pull through. Some of them can accommodate larger rigs, but the RV people stayed the entire time I was there so I was never able to examine the two that they were using. There is one bathroom, and of course stock water from the river, but no other amenities. If you look online the description of this camp says that there are corrals, but that is no longer true. I had no cell service there because this camp is situated in a bit of a ravine. There are a few other official campgrounds along this river and lots of nice dispersed spots as well, but the reason I went to this specific one is because it has a bridge. The Fremont National Recreation Trail runs right through camp and you can cross the bridge and follow it south from there.

The bridge on the Fremont National Recreation Trail.

The first night, although there were no mosquito's, there were a few bugs bothering my thin skinned horse, so I was spraying some repellent on her, when somehow the nozzle got turned around and I sprayed myself directly in the face. In the eyes to be exact, luckily I use a natural repellent for humans instead of fly spray, so it could have been worse, but I had a film of oil covering my eyeballs for the rest of the night. 

The next day I headed across the bridge and followed the trail for several hours until I reached a fence line with a gate, at a high point where the trail then crosses over to the other side of the mountains. This is where I turned around. Along the way there were short sections of burned forest from the recent fires, consequently there were some downed trees to navigate, but this is open country and you can get around them pretty easily. There are nice views back down to the Chewaucan River and it's a mostly easy ride, although with some elevation gain and one slightly cliffy section.

On the Fremont Trail, heading south.

A little watering hole.

 

Views back down to the river.

The Fremont National Recreation Trail is marked.

When I got back, a lady who had just arrived with her husband, took a couple pictures of me as I was crossing the bridge, we chatted for a bit and she took my number so she could send me the photos, but I guess she forgot, because I never heard from her! The night before a couple of kids had come by to say hi to my horse, so on the second evening as I was spending an hour watching her occasionally chewing on her fetlock, ( a sign that a tick is trying to crawl up her leg, at which point I remove it ) a guy with the same group dropped by to see her as well, and although he was a nice enough guy he wanted to tell me all about his knowledge of horses, which was about 95% extremely wrong! 

There was a fun, thunder, lightning and rain storm as I was crawling into bed that night. I'm always extremely grateful to be warm and cozy in my LQ in those kind of situations, after spending many years tent camping and freezing my ass off.

On the last day I started riding at the crack of dawn. I went north on the Fremont Trail for a short while, but saw there were some more downed trees, and so I changed my mind and decided to follow forest service road 3412 instead, which was going in the same general direction. To get to it I rode down the paved road past another campground called Jones Crossing, which looks like a nice spot, its a little roomier for trailers and putting up corrals etc. BUT you would have to ride on the tarmac for a little while to get to the trail from there.

Starting out on the north side of the Fremont Trail.

The Chewaucan River.

As I was riding along I saw something in the middle of the road up ahead. It stared at me for a bit and then ran away and that's when I identified it as a badger. Once I got to where it had been, I thought I would not see it again, but it was curious and was watching me from it's den. So I started taking pictures and the little guy stuck around and posed for quite awhile. He or she seemed pretty fascinated with my horse. They are nocturnal, and fairly elusive, so this was a treat!

The little cute badger.

I ended up following the road until I was in a pretty meadow with a spring and lots of Aspens, but after that I had to call it a day and head back, so I would had time to drive home. I rode six hours on both days at this camp, and could have ridden a couple more days there.

The spring runs into a pond in a meadow.

Views from the FS road.

Heading back down the FS road.

This was a slightly busier camp than the others I have visited in the Fremont Winema National Forest, and the others all had corrals, but there are plenty to pick from, and you will have some really pretty country to explore. It's a great area to hit up in the early season since snow melt happens faster there. I would recommend May or June, before it gets too hot. 

GPS COORDINATES TO CHEWAUCAN CROSSING