 |
My uncle Lamar and I traveled to Blizzard Gap, located about 15 miles east
of Adel, Oregon, along highway 140. We were on the search for
gemstones, pretty rocks, and seeing new country. We had our trusty
ATV's available and set out early the first morning. |
 |
Of course, if anyone is going to do something stupid, who would it be...
yep, me! I rode across an alkali flat and just about buried my ATV
in a bog. The top 7-8" was dry and person wouldn't have known there
was no bottom to this semi-dry lake bottom. It was a good thing we
carried a rope and had the second ATV, otherwise, Ricky would have been
walking the 7-8 miles back to camp to retrieve the truck and lots of rope. |
 |
We must have seen about 200-400 antelope on this trip. It was difficult to
determine if we'd already counted them, as they run like jack rabbits and
we could have been counting many of them twice (or three times).
Once you click on the picture and see the 640X480 view you'll notice
the small antelope amongst several cattle. There were also lots of
cows on the region. |
 |
This is Mud Lake; we moved here on after the second night. We were trying
to get further north and Mud Lake is more centrally located to where we
wanted to explore. |
 |
The region out here is desolate and dry. If you explore out here be
sure to take lots of water and be prepared to walk in the event your ATV
breaks down. This view is looking south back toward Mud Lake. |
 |
I followed a road that would have ended me at Crump Lake, located in the
valley just north of Adel, Oregon. I turned around an met Lamar back on
top of the ridge, as this wasn't the direction we wanted to go that day. |
 |
The roads were not traveled very much, as you can see by this picture.
But, the country was beautiful. |
 |
Speaking of roads that haven't been traveled much, this is actually a
road. Zoom in a bit and you can almost make out the 4-track pattern.
Most of the roads on top of the ridge line were in this condition.
We didn't find any gemstones, or pretty rocks for that matter, but what
we did find was plenty of desolate country, lots of lava rock, hordes of
antelope, and clean air. This was a beautiful trip. |