Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge Tours

Nice scenery from this 4x4 trail in the refuge. We saw only 2 other people over the two days we spent here, and they were employees counting mule deer. November seems to be a good time to go, as long as you don't mind camping in sub freezing temperatures.

The Warner Lakes are a unique system resulting from geology and weather patterns occurring over the millennia. The lakes are a closed system, periodically filling with water and gradually drying by evaporation. In high water years, hundreds of miles of channels link the lakes. The "lunate" or crescent-shaped dunes at the north end of each lake were created by the prevailing winds from the south dropping material on the leeward side of each water body. The lake levels fluctuate today on approximately a ten-year wet/dry cycle.

There are hot springs in the valley below. Years ago, an old rancher dynamited a hole in the granite and exposed a nice spot to dip in.

Little is known about the people who painted red spirals and animalistic figures on Oregon’s desert cliffs thousands of years ago. Because modern Oregon tribes have no similar painting traditions or legends, the petroglyphs may well be the work of a different people—a mysterious, earlier culture that hoped to communicate with the spirit world through symbolic messages at sacred sites. One of those sacred places must have been this small lake on the vast desert plateau atop Poker Jim Ridge. In what is now the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, nearly 100 drawings decorate the black basalt ledge ringing Petroglyph Lake’s western shore.

http://www.oregonhiking.com/oregon-adventures/100-hikes-in-eastern-oregon/high-desert-hikes/petroglyph-lake-hike

Visit Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge

Activities

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