Trip Report: Owyhee Canyonlands Expedition Day Two & Three May 24 - 25 2008

[RidgeRunner]

Day Two, Saturday, May 24, 2008
Narrated by Mick

Those of us who were staying in JV (Jordan Valley) woke up to beautiful, clear Eastern Oregon sunshine when we went to breakfast.

Our plan for the day was to drive west (at that point) on Hwy 95 to Rome, OR about 35 miles and pick up a few more members who were camping down at the Pillars of Rome, close by. We were then going to proceed south on the west side of the Owyhee River all the way to the Nevada border east of McDermitt and try to locate Three Corners at the Southwestern Idaho, Southeastern Oregon and Northern Nevada border.

All 10 vehicles with 14 SOB’s (that’s souls on board in case you’re wondering) turned south on the Skull Creek Road which parallels the west side of the main Owyhee River. This is high sage steppe fairly flat with numerous hills and high mountain ranges with snow on them in the distance in almost every direction.

There were some fierce T-storms the night before in the area that had obviously dropped some serious rain and as we progressed southward we began to see the results of the storms by starting to encounter more mud on the road. Even though we all managed the mud ok for a few miles it was obvious it was getting worse and we didn’t want to tear up the roads. Those who have traveled these areas know this is the gooiest, stickiest muck you can imagine and pretty soon you are just skating up the road with little control. We made a decision to turn around at the top of a very long sticky hill and go back to Rome.

On the way back north, we took a short detour to the east to view a canyon vista. We all whipped out our cameras and took advantage of the parked rigs and the canyon vies. It was here that Casey noticed a flat tire on his Taco. Nothing like a handy ARB flat repair kit at a time like this and the damaged tire was quickly plugged and re-aired and we were on our way again with a short break for snacks and more pix. Just before we left this spot, some folks on quads pulled up and asked direction to the hot springs. We pointed them in the right direction for Warm Springs Creek about 15 miles south and told them about our mud experience and off they went.


After driving back to Rome and Hwy 95 again we turned east and went to the Three Forks road and turned south again. We pulled into the Owyhee Canyon Overlook area for more pix and gasped at the canyon vision.


Owyhee River Canyon Overlook

We arrived at Three Forks, crossed the bridge over the North Fork of the Owyhee and followed a muddy 4-wheel road around the Three Forks Dome about three miles to a beautiful spot on the Owyhee known as the Warm Springs Crossing. Well we could tell there wouldn’t be any crossing there today as the river was obviously too high.. Our friends on the quads were over across the river enjoying the 85 degree water in Warm Spring Creek along with someone in a very capable blue Toyota FJ-40, who we found out later was staying at our motel in JV and he said it was one of the toughest trails he has ever encountered. We had some warm springs on our side of the river too and a few members of our party enjoyed them.

Owyhee River and Three Forks Dome



Warm Springs Crossing


Warm Springs Creek





Keegan, Jen and Linner enjoying hot springs


We said our goodbyes to Three Forks as we climbed out of the canyon and drove back north to Hwy 95 and some folks went back to Rome to camp and some went to JV for a motel. There were T-storms building with heavy rains and lightning all around us.

Day Three, Sunday, May 25th, 2008

Greeting another sunny, beautiful morning and after some deliberation in JV about what to do, we headed back to Rome to meet with the rest of our party there. When we arrived there were four planes parked at the gas pump. They had flown in for breakfast and landed on the adjoining airstrip. We had breakfast with them and then headed south for the 70 mile drive to McDermitt, Nevada with a plan to head for the secretive Three Corners. Some of our members decided to start home in various directions so Day Three only included five vehicles carrying Jerry & Randy, Paul, Tom & Jen, Dick and Mick.

Jerry talked to a local who gave us some insight on what we might encounter driving east to find the elusive Three Corners which we knew was about 35 unknown miles away.

Gas prices in Beautiful Downtown McDermitt, NV

We drove through part of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation and up the Quinn River Valley with great wild flower vistas and green hills then topped out at about 6400 feet in elevation. On the way up there we negotiated several fairly deep river crossings but everyone made it ok with plenty of picture taking along the way. We followed a high plateau for several miles with distant mountain views and eventually found our goal, the Three Corner Monument.



Just another crummy day in Paradise


Directions are always nice



Photo op at Three Corners


Finally there...N 42 Lat Monument

After taking numerous photos and noticing distant T-storms were closing-no they were racing toward us we turned tail and ran. We didn’t want to be caught in heavy rain as we still had to negotiate some mud as it was getting out of there. After a quick run back over the same track we had just taken, we arrived in McDermitt, dodged an approaching T-storm in the local casino for a bite to eat before the rest of us headed out in various directions. Most of us were headed back home but Paul (the lucky guy) was headed south on his way to Moab for a week. Hopefully he’ll tell us his story when he gets back to Tacoma.

Even without the weather cooperating very much it was still a very enjoyable trip with a lot of great people.

[MrsRidgeRunner]

Hello everyone,
Mick shared his pictures and stories with me yesterday, and the trip sounded and looked fantastic. I missed some beautiful wildflowers, interesting rock formations, and fun roads. If I had known that you would have ended up at nights in quaint little no-star motels, I would have joined the fun.

MrsRidgeRunner (Joey)

[Toy Man]

It was a GREAT trip.

The drive out the 3 state marker was super neat.

Thanks to Jerry for organizing and leading this trip.

Dick - Toy Man

[Steve]

It sounds like I missed a great trip. The pictures are great.

Steve

[nightfoam]

Cool sounds like you guys had fun on Sunday. We did pretty good too, I'm going through pictures, I have 400 from my Mom and brother and I've took exactly 1000

HUGE thanks to Jerry for the extensive planning and organization that went into this trip and made it so great.

[RidgeRunner]

Here is a photo link to a slideshow produced by Tom & Jen. Great pix...Thanks guys.

Mick

[Steve]

Great photos. Now I have a better idea of what I missed.

Steve

[nightfoam]

Man those're some great pics by Tom and Jen. WOW
I've got Keegan's uploaded here I'm still working on mine and my Moms

[T.Low]

With those rigs travelling thru that scenery, you couldn't miss with the photos.

We tried a little editing of the slideshow and it proved to be a bit of a mystery. Lost some of the pics and sequence is a little off. Will try to staighten it out later.

Her Canon Powershot takes one minute videos that look great on our files, but lost a lot of quality once uploaded onto youtube.

YouTube - PNBA comunications policy at Owyhee

YouTube - Mick's Forerunner in Owyhee

YouTube - creek rinse on Owyhee trip

YouTube - Astro along the Owhyee

YouTube - 3 Corners intersection "marker" Oregon, Idaho, Nevada

We sure enjoyed the heck out of that trip. Over 2,000 miles from Thursday nite 7pm to Monday nite 9pm. A great group of characters, incredible scenery to drive thru and I actually liked the changing weather factor. 10 rigs and not any two the same model; thats fun.

Looking forward to joining you guys again for another run.

T&J

[RidgeRunner]

Very good, Tom & Jen, those vids & pix will help preserve the memories. It was really nice meeting & traveling with you folks.

Mick