I've wanted to get down into the Steens Wilderness since I first learned about it. What I was excited about was how you could get out onto the dried lake bed, the Alvord Desert, and how it looked like a foreign landscape from another planet. The only time I've ever been to a similar area was at Badwater Basin in Death Valley. Though the desert was located in Oregon, it was still a six-hour drive away. When an opportunity presented itself for a long weekend, I knew exactly where to go.
To get down to Desert, I opted to take the longer more scenic route. I wanted to revisit an area of Oregon I had passed through on my drive from Colorado around the Warner and Guano Valleys. I had a late start leaving at around 10 AM, I usually like to get moving as early as possible, but I need to take Brittany to the airport that morning. This put me in a different mindset for the days travels, my only goal was to get to the desert before sunrise, so I took it pretty slow stopping and exploring whenever it felt right. You see I usually push it pretty hard on travel days, but leaving late and not wanting to sit around in the hot desert sun for too long waiting for good light, I took advantage of the extra time getting there.
I ended up making it to the playa around 6 PM, this was over two hours away from the sunset, but I was just east of a rather large mountain, so I was only an hour or so away from being in the Steens shadow. Driving out onto the playa was a surreal experience. My sense of movement and speed were off with nothing around to provide perspective. The desert is seven miles wide by twelve miles long, looking at the GPS, I did my best to camp right in the center getting the furthest away from the edges as possible. After setting up camp, I waited for the sunset and was floored as the sky exploded into color. I took more pictures than what would be considered reasonable, but every time I turned, I felt an overwhelming compulsion to capture the beauty before me.
If I had to guess, I would say that there were less than 100 people around in a 100-mile radius. Though I was excited about the solitude, It also meant that there was going to be nearly zero light pollution for seeing the stars. I've admitted before that I don't participate in much astrophotography, but I'll never pass up an excellent chance to practice. The only downside was waiting till nearly midnight for the last of the suns light to leave the horizon. You see, the playa was a giant reflector, and the smallest amount of light gave you a clear view of what was around you since there was no moon. After capturing the stars for as long as I could push myself to stay up, I headed to bed to rest up; I had an early call for sunrise in a few hours.
