Post Meadows Horse Camp, Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge, Oregon

I had always wondered about the horse camp in the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge since there was no information anywhere to be found about it. The only thing I had ever heard from someone was that the road to get to it was crappy. But since I enjoy finding new places, and I like to get off the beaten path, I decided to check it out. I called ahead to make sure it was open, but unfortunately the girl I talked to knew nothing, and ended up giving me conflicting information. It turns out this camp is always open, as long as the roads to get to it are passable. It is in a remote area 65 miles from the nearest town with services, (Lakeview) and 24 of those miles are gravel.

Sunset at Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge.

I spent the first day just driving, but once I got to the refuge and the road turned to gravel, I heard a loud noise and realized right away what had happened, my spare tire had fallen out from underneath my truck...again. This had happened once before in California, and I had already had a stern talk with Les Schwab about putting it back under there correctly, anyway this time the metal bracket was half on and half off, so I dealt with that situation, threw the tire into the back of the truck, and continued on. There is a steep climb to get up onto the rim, and then another long drive to get to the horse camp. The gravel roads are mostly okay, with some washboard sections, but the last 14 miles are on the more rustic Blue Sky Rd.
The horse camp is situated another half of a mile off of Blue Sky, and it is not a road you should attempt if it is at all muddy. I could see the corrals from afar and that no one was there, and when I finally arrived I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Post Meadows has a very big cow corral that is divided into three separate areas, which is also attached to a large fully fenced pasture. There was lush green grass in the corrals and in the parking area. Although I brought a bale of hay, I never opened it during my stay. There is stock water available from Guano Creek, but it is about 300 feet away. There is also a bathroom, and there is no fee for camping, or to enter the refuge. You are not allowed to dispersed camp, so this is the only place to camp with horses. There are no picnic tables, and you are not allowed to have campfires.

The sign on Blue Sky Rd., the camp is half a mile from here.

The refuge is huge at 278,000 acres and is very spread out. It has one campground down on the flat land before climbing up in elevation, then there is Hot Springs Campground which is closer to the refuge headquarters, and then the horse camp is much farther away, all alone, but it in my opinion it has the best location and scenery. Lastly there is Guano Creek Campground, a hunters camp that is only open between August 1st to November 1st. Update: In 2024 I returned to Hart Mountain, this time without my horse. I drove over to see the horse camp again and was surprised to see that it has had a major remodel. The corrals are still there but the pasture area has been turned into a loop drive area with six gravel back in spots. They also added quite a few hitching rails, several water troughs and an extra bathroom.

Post Meadows Horse Camp in 2020

Post Meadows in 2024

New hitching rails, in 2024

I had printed out a map from the refuge web page before I left, and so I planned a large loop for my first ride. But I got distracted from that plan because I saw a road going up into the hills, that was not on the map. I soon figured out that besides the few maintained main roads, they have a lot of secondary roads, like the one the camp is on, which are closed to motorized vehicles during the winter, and in fact were not even opening until June 15th, presumably to make sure everything had dried out appropriately. So although all the secondary roads which are great for riding, are on the map, there are what I started calling "secondary secondary" roads which continue on forever, some you could take a high clearance vehicle on, and some that are just for foot and horse traffic. There are no real rules about horse travel, you can just go wherever you want, which worked for me. So I started by continuing to follow Blue Sky Rd. to where it ends at the Old Camp Warner Historic Grave Site.

The grave site.

The trees ahead are a large grove of Ponderosa's.

Then I climbed up onto the ridge, otherwise known as Hart Mountain. Once up on top there are views for days. I followed one road a pretty long time, and then looped back over past Warner Peak and was looking down onto the tiny town of Plush, and the Hart Lake area.

I had already seen a few antelope at this point, one while driving, and one that was peeking over a hill at me the evening before, but I flushed out a few more on this ride. There are a lot of single bucks, and since I don't think hardly anyone ever rides on the refuge, they were pretty astonished to see a horse. I didn't even try to get pictures of them at that point, they would bounce away and then get to where they were just far enough to be out of good camera range, then stop and stare at me, and snort like a horse does when they don't know what the heck they are seeing.

Looking down onto Hart Lake.

On top of Hart Mountain.

On top of Hart Mountain.

Hart Lake.

The road ended at this view to the west, amazing how many lakes there are.

That evening an older fellow with a dog came and camped near me, he was at the refuge looking for Sandhill Cranes, but he left early in the morning. He told me there were Bighorn Sheep up in the hills I had just been that day, but unfortunately I had not spotted any.

After our rides my pony would have her nap next to me.

The third day, I decided to ride Barnhardy Rd, which goes through the hunters camp first, and then continues on to the popular Hot Springs Campground. The map I had wasn't really great for trying to judge mileage, but I rode down through a valley with rolling hills and aspen groves until I got to the Barnhardy Cabin. Then I turned back and went along Skyliner Rd/Trail to a couple of the lookouts. I did not want to continue on what could have been a loop from there, since I would have had to do a lot of riding on the main road to get back to camp, so I went cross country instead and dropped down out of the hills. On this ride I encountered a male and female antelope pair having a siesta, the male was very curious, and so I finally got my first chance at some decent pictures. They eventually ran off in front of me for awhile, but then doubled back, so they were in the same area when I returned. Much to their chagrin, I returned at top speed over a hill at a canter, and interrupted their nap for the second time in one day.

Where Blue Sky Rd. ends and Barnhardy Rd. starts.

Riding up Barnhardy Rd. towards Guano Creek Campground.

Beneath Warner Peak on Barnhardy Rd.

An Aspen grove on Barnhardy Rd.

Barnhardy Cabin.

I had no idea what this was, but it turns out it measures snow depth.

Interrupted a herd of deer that were bedded down.

Views from a lookout. The miniscule white dot with a black line next to it,  is my rig and the corrals.

The first antelope I got a picture of.

That evening I had antelope trotting by, coyotes yapping, and birds singing, what more could I want.
Ahhhh...solitude.... until, another man in a van decided to spend the night, he was from California, and was there to photograph wildlife. He wasn't having any luck getting pictures of the antelope yet, but he told me he was also going to get up in the middle of the night to shoot the milky way.

The horse camp is on Post Meadows Rd. and I wanted to follow it and see where it continued on to, so I did just that on day four. After awhile I came across Big Flat Ranch...I actually have no idea what it is called, I made that up, but it is an old abandoned ranch in an area called Big Flat, so it seems appropriate. This road gets pretty rocky after awhile, climbs up a hill, and then I had views down to Crump Lake and what I assume was a dried up version of Reservoir Lake. This was an especially hot day, but it clouded over eventually, which was much appreciated.

On Post Meadows Rd.

Warner Creek crosses Post Meadows Rd.

Big Flat Ranch, so named by yours truly.

Looking down onto Crump Lake.

I had had three lovely nights thus far, but on the fourth night a few mosquitoes meandered by, then a few more, until all hell broke loose. I ran for cover and had to leave my poor horse outside, my entire truck and trailer were covered in mosquitoes and they were all staring at me through the screens with an obvious amount of blood lust. I assumed once it got dark they would disappear, but it was a warm night and they stuck around. That night was not a restful one, I would be sleeping and all of a sudden there would be a buzzing in my ear, or one would land one my nose. I couldn't figure out how they were getting in, but in the morning the mystery was solved as I saw that one of my screens had a slight gap between it and the window frame. My horse despises mosquitoes and at 5 am when I looked out, she was either walking very quickly, or trotting around the field, and I have a feeling that was how her entire night went.  Although I had planned one more ride and another night's stay, that was all out the window, I had to get out of there ASAP. I ran around throwing everything into the truck, grabbed my horse, threw her into the trailer along with a cloud of mosquitoes, and started driving. Once we got away from the creek, proximity to water being the culprit, I stopped and checked on the situation inside the trailer, it turned out that once I had started driving, they all panicked and clung to the windows, so at least they were leaving my horse alone.

We were both pretty bedraggled by then, I had a headache and my horse looked droopy, but I decided just to do a short ride on my way out of the refuge, so I stopped near the headquarters and rode to Petroglyph Lake and along Poker Jim Rd. I was able to find room to park along the side of Hart Mountain Rd., most of the secondary roads don't have parking areas at all, so it is not easy to stop at very many places, at least with a truck and trailer. As I was getting ready three young antelope came right past the truck and did their usual gawking thing. At one point I looked over and a buck was just across the road from me. Finally, some good pictures!

Curious youngsters check out me and my horse.

A buck gets quite close.

Petroglyph Lake.

There are quite a few petroglyphs at the lake.

Petroglyph Lake.

On the way back, on Poker Jim Rd.

One would think after this ride, that would be the end of my story, but this was a Saturday and a friend had texted me about an upcoming storm that was supposed to hit Central OR. I told her it was not forecast to come near where I was, which ended up being true, but as I attempted to drive off the refuge, I got hit by heavy, heavy winds. The truck was struggling, and I had no idea how bad the wind was until a lid blew off one of my water barrels, and I pulled over and I had to wrestle with the door to even get out of the truck. As I was driving through the Summer Lake area, tree branches were breaking and being flung out onto the highway. I remembered seeing a good looking dispersed spot just outside of Summer Lake and so I got that far, and was done driving for the day. In the meantime Central OR had got the brunt of heavy rain, huge hail, and quite a lot of property damage, as well as power outages. The sky had turned an odd shade of green, and the word "tornado" was being thrown around. When I did get home on Sunday, my place was unscathed, in a way I am glad I missed it, but in another way, I imagine it would have been a pretty interesting experience.

Total antelope count for the whole trip: 44


GPS COORDINATES TO POST MEADOWS

Collier Memorial State Park, Oregon

I am, of course, all set up for dispersed camping and seeing as how I cannot camp in actual campgrounds right now, it is just a matter of finding other places to go. Collier Memorial State Park in Chiloquin has a small horse camp that I had not been to yet, but since it is closed I camped across the highway, and was able to ride on most of the same trails and roads.

The Williamson River.

I headed over to a large area a local rider had told me about where I could camp, found to my delight that it was not occupied, and then I set off on my first ride along the Williamson River. I followed a trail to the north that was short, but very scenic, then the river narrowed at a rocky crossing and the trail petered out.

Riding north along a trail beside the Williamson River.

The Williamson River.

I crossed the river here, but the trail did not continue on.

After that I went south on dirt roads briefly, then west up a hill in order to cross over the highway to Rd. 9732 which took me first to the Oux Kanee Overlook, and then eventually to the headwaters of Spring Creek. At the overlook I found a blue plastic egg filled with lifesavers, there must have been an easter egg hunt recently and some poor kid missed one!

Although I've seen quite a few rivers that originate from springs, this one was pretty interesting since it bubbled out of the ground instead of coming out of the side of a bank. The picnic area at the headwaters is not being maintained, not just because of the recent closures, but it's obvious that for quite awhile the bathroom has been locked and unused, and things are generally in disrepair.

At the Oux Kanee Overlook.

Spring Creek from the Oux Kanee Overlook.

Spring Creek's headwaters bubble out of the ground.

I love my horse and even though she is getting older and has had some issues last year, as long as she is still healthy and happy, I will continue to go on adventures with her, since training a great trail horse is a long time in the making, and a good mind can be hard to come by. This is never more apparent then when something happens that could have been a disaster. As I was riding cross country back to my camp spot, I was looking over towards a camper that was parked nearby, and was not looking at the ground in front of us. My horse walked straight into two strands of barbed wire, she must have hit them with her front feet, but picked them up high enough to get over the first strand, then I felt her back leg get caught on the second strand. I immediately asked her to stop, backed her up just a bit to get the tension off, dismounted, and got her back leg up and over the last strand. The only damage was one minuscule scrape on one leg, but if she was a horse that had panicked, didn't listen, and didn't ground tied, the outcome would have been much different.

I got back to my rig and set up camp. This area has no grass for grazing, and although it is in the general vicinity of the river, it's definitely not close enough to easily get water, just a good spot if you are completely self contained.

My dispersed camping spot.

The following day I crossed a one lane bridge over the Williamson River and rode on the east side all day. Right after you cross the bridge there are several different dirt roads to choose from, I went right first, still following the river, but then looped back after running into private property. All these roads eventually lead to train tracks, which you can cross and continue riding on the other side.

Riding dirt roads across the river.

Found a meadow for grazing.

An odd watering hole.

There were a lot of ticks out and about, so when we stopped for snacks, I had to keep an eye on my horse's legs. She is very good about letting me know about the ones that manage to actually get close to her skin, she will start gnawing on her fetlock and she either removes the tick herself or I can swoop in and remove the little bugger for her. Another insect that was a nuisance was a very determined bumblebee who was convinced that I was a flower and would not quit buzzing around me, so I had to outrun him, (well my horse did), and we left him in the dust.

On the last day I rode across the bridge again, and this time went left, which took me to a nice overlook of the river, and then I continued north, again on the many options of dirt roads, although some would peter out after awhile and I would have to follow another one. At one point I found a nice red cinder cone to climb to the top of, where I got some great views.

On a ledge with a great view down onto the Williamson River.

Sand lilies.

More dirt roads heading north.

Nice views of Mt. Scott and Mt. Thielsen.

On top of a cinder cone.

On top of a cinder cone.

On the way back while riding on a road near the train tracks, not one but two trains went by within ten minutes of one another. Although my horse has seen one once before this was much more up close and personal. And just when she thought she had experienced everything!

I was planning to stay a third night and then drive home the following day but when I returned to camp, there were a couple of homeless looking people parked across from me. The place I camped at was big enough for trucks and trailers, but one of the smaller more scenic river spots would have been much nicer for someone without a horse, so why they chose to camp so close to me is a mystery, but that made me decide to pack up and head home.

At some point in the future when areas open up again, and I am driving by, I will stop and do a day ride from the state park, and then I will update this blog about the horse camp facilities they have.

Even though I did not camp at Collier, these are the GPS Coordinates to the park:

Collier Memorial State Park

Blacklock Point, Cape Blanco Horse Camp and North Bank Habitat, Oregon

After getting back at the end of October from a three week trip to Utah, I winterized my trailer and assumed my camping season was over BUT November was surprisingly mild, and so I found a window of four nice weather days to sneak off to the coast.
Since there was only one horse camp there that I had not yet been to, I drove the 7 hours over to Sixes, Oregon.

The North Beach at Cape Blanco.

I stopped at Floras Lake State Park just north of Cape Blanco, to ride to Blacklock Point and maybe further, if I had enough time. This trailhead is at the end of Airport Rd. which dead ends at an airport, not surprisingly, and the trail and small parking area is on the left. However there is also a nice large horse trailer friendly pullout on the right.

The trail follows beside the airport fence for awhile and then heads through the woods to the beach and consequently to the point. After checking out the views there, I got onto the Oregon Coast Trail which runs along the ridge. I followed it north for awhile but this is a hiking trail, and I knew from previous experience, that it has many non horse friendly areas, so it didn't take long before I had to turn around. Back near the airport there is an unmarked junction that will take you to Floras Lake, and I would have loved to have gone the whole way, but I could only follow that trail for a short time, or I was going to be setting up camp in the dark...darn time change!

On the trail to Blacklock Point.

Blacklock Point.

Blacklock Point.

I then drove over to Cape Blanco State Park to the horse camp, which was totally empty.

Cape Blanco is a cute little camp with 8 sites in a loop. There are new steel corrals, a quite clean porta potty, garbage cans, 5 potable water spigots that you can attach a hose to, a manure bin and a grey water dump.
Spots #6 and #8 have four corrals and all the rest have two. #1, #6 and #8 are pull throughs, the others are back in, and site #3 is the smallest. The spots are lengthy enough to fit larger rigs but not wide enough for more than one, the exception being #4 which is wide enough for two rigs. You are also allowed to put up your own corrals to accommodate additional horses.

Cape Blanco Horse Camp.

Cape Blanco Horse Camp.

Like most coastal camps you can reserve a spot, and in the busy summer you would be extremely lucky to get a site without a reservation.
It is $17.00 per night, and there are no additional charges like most camps have for extra vehicles. If you don't have a reservation, you have to walk to the people campground nearby, to camp host site #50 where there is a self pay station.
The people campground has flush toilets and showers, which I was happy to take advantage of since I did not want to unwinterize my trailer.

Spot # 6 at Cape Blanco Horse Camp.

The next day I left camp on the horse trail and headed south, there are around 7 miles of inland trails as well as a 150 acre open riding area across from camp. But the main goal, of course, is the beach so I went over to a viewpoint first, and then down onto the sand. It was sunny, the tide was out and there was no wind, which is a rarity at the coast. There were several curious seals watching me from the waves, they must really wonder what the heck kind of creature a horse is, with a rider, no less.

I always gallop when I am on the beach, so I did quite a lot of that. I headed north first to the point of the cape, passing Needle Rock. Then I went south until I reached Elk River. At the river there were quite a few fishermen, and I noticed one was just getting back into his car to leave the beach, so unbeknownst to him, I decided to race him... and I won!

Trail signage at Cape Blanco.

A south beach viewpoint.

On South Beach near Needle Rock.

Cape Blanco and the lighthouse.

After that I went back inland and rode around the perimeter fence line of the riding trails until I came to a dead end at the park road. From there I went up a trail that is deemed "extremely difficult", this just means that it is steep, and rode in the open riding area, meandering in and out of the woods for awhile.

The swampy area at the far east side of the trail system.

Looking over to the Sixes River from the horse trail system.

I'm not much for sitting still, so after my ride, which was pretty short, I went for a hike over to the lighthouse. The lighthouse and another attraction called The Hughes House, that I also walked to the following day, are fun places to visit and get tours of in the summer, however when I was there they were both closed for the winter.

The view down to the south beach where I had just ridden.

The Cape Blanco Lighthouse.

The next day I needed to find a way to get down to the beach on the north side of the cape, since you can't ride all the way around it. I started on the Oregon Coast Trail which I accessed by riding north on the camp road and then crossing the paved park road. I tried heading towards the Hughes House first, but the trail shortly became non horse friendly again. So I went the other way towards the lighthouse and made my way down to the beach from there. I was able to ride all the way back over to Blacklock Point, with the tide out and a spit of sand to follow between the ocean and the Sixes River. I also tried to ride the inland trails beside the river, but they were flooded and I didn't get very far.

On the Oregon Coast Trail.

The North Beach.

Riding on the North Beach.

The spit of sand between the ocean and the Sixes River.

Near the Sixes River.

I went back to the Coast Trail and then followed it south, so I was looping back along beside the people campground and then over to the horse camp road. Although you are not allowed to ride along the paved roads, just crossing over them is probably okay, at least at the time of year that I was there, since it was pretty quiet, not much traffic or tourists to contend with.

There was someone parked in the camp when I got back, using an empty spot as day use.
After my ride, I went for a long walk over to the Pioneer Graveyard and the Hughes House. The Hughes House was built in 1898 and was once the home of a dairy farmer, and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

On the Oregon Coast Trail heading south.

The Hughes House.

That evening as I was snug in my bed, I heard a strange noise coming from the back of my truck.... directly underneath me. At first I thought it was the wind knocking something over, but then there were some banging noises. It was pitch dark and I was not sure what I was dealing with, I had seen some deer earlier but I ruled them out pretty quickly. Then I remembered that I had left a container with senior equine in the back of my truck (which I never do), but once I heard it fall over I knew something was trying to get into it. Bear? I wasn't sure but I didn't want my truck to get all scratched up...priorities...so I went out and turned on my outside light. I saw something disappear off to the far side of my rig, so I went back into the trailer and shone my flashlight out my gooseneck window, right into the eyes of a portly raccoon who was staring right back at me.
After that I removed the tempting grain, and went back to bed, but of course the raccoon came back a little later when the coast was clear, and tried to find it again. I also heard him out there the following night, just in case I might have been complacent once more. All I can say is while he was hoisting himself up and over my tailgate, he was not particularly agile or graceful.

Early in the morning I got packed up, but instead of driving straight home, I took a little detour outside of Roseburg to the North Bank Habitat Management Area.
There are a couple of ways to access this large piece of BLM. Since it was a Saturday, I went to the Comstock Trailhead which is gated and only open Friday through Monday. The other way in, which is called the West Entrance is open all week.
The Comstock Trailhead has a bathroom and parking for quite a few horse trailers, in fact it was a busy place, and many more trailers arrived all through the day. There is a map you can look up online of all the trails, and also a large mapboard at the trailhead. They have a little covered manure bin where you can deposit any horse poop, which I thought was kind of nice, and certainly cuts down on the amount of times people just leave it in the parking lot.

The Comstock Trailhead at North Bank Habitat.

There were some ladies getting ready to ride at the same time as me, in fact they invited me to join them, but I was kind of pressed for time, since I still had to drive all the way home. They had warned me about chiggers (a tiny type of mite) being a problem, so I fly sprayed my horse just in case. They left before me, but eventually I caught up and passed them. There are a couple of gates at the trailhead to go through, and depending on which one you pick, you will have a few different trails/roads to choose from, all of them going up into oak tree covered rolling hills.

I started on the Blacktail Basin Trail, then veered off for awhile on to the top of a ridge, then passed Grumpy's Pond and headed back down the Soggy Bottom Road passing the Wrong Way Trail!
I passed quite a few wildlife cameras set up in several different places. They are easy to spot, but pick your bathroom breaks carefully, or you will be on camera!
I am sure in the spring and summer there are numerous wild flowers, but although it was November the hills were still green, and it was very pretty. This is grazing land so there are quite a few gates to go through, and a lot of electric fence set up throughout the area. Since it is BLM you could technically camp on the land, but you can't camp at the trailhead, or drive onto the land, so that makes it pretty tricky to do so, unless you pack in.

Riding up the Blacktail Basin Trail, the two ladies are ahead of me.

Views from the Blacktail Basin Trail.

Scott Mountain.

The junction with the Powerline Road.

This area is popular for hunting, and I did see a few hunters when I left the parking lot, but not again for the rest of the day.
Once I got onto the Soggy Bottom Road I ran into another group of friendly riders, and as I headed back downhill, I could see where the name of that trail came about, since there was quite a lot of mud in the shaded areas.

Going down the Soggy Bottom Road.

Lots of oak trees on the Soggy Bottom Road.

It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day, and I would rather have continued exploring some of the other trails, but I had to think about getting home at a decent hour, so I kept my ride on the shorter side. I may have to go back another time and see the rest of the area. I got back home just in time for winter to finally kick in and snowfall to curtail my adventures... at least for a little while.



GPS COORDINATES TO BLACKLOCK POINT TH

GPS COORDINATES TO CAPE BLANCO

GPS COORDINATES TO COMSTOCK TH