Troubles in the Desert Touring Oregon's Geological Oddities 

Whoa, that's amazing! Yes, there's now almost an entire enclosed room walled in (albeit short walls) and if I remember right I think there were some other smaller stacks besides the one shown in my video. Thanks for watching, I'm glad you ran across my video!

Well, thanks for putting up the video, I about fell out of my chair when I saw the structures there on the Mtn. How cool is that to run across that. Back then the U of O astronomers were doing ground breaking work on variable stars as I recall, and they graciously gave us a tour of the telescopes. @@softroadingthewest

That’s so cool to hear the origin of the shelters! I’ve been up there many times by motorcycle and by truck, and shared it with my kids. We always walk up to the shelters.

Haha, one of those rare moments when too-lazy-to-fully-research-the-facts and halfhearted-attempt-at-being-funny align. 8^D Thanks for the kind words Kristen, much appreciated. I've just started editing the next video this evening!

Thanks Dan! Check out Atlas Overland's video that dropped yesterday, also trekking down into this area. He even stumbles across an abandoned building... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ybWcC6v4uxI.html

Thank you! We are lucky here with an interesting variety of climates and terrains. Still so much more I haven't seen yet. Thanks for watching!

Thanks Mike, much appreciated! Hope you guys will be back out on a trail soon, your adventures are a huge inspiration!

Haha, these days I'd make two or three episodes out of this trip! I think this was the first video I ever toyed with filming any sort of "hiking" and camping experience instead of just the Subaru on the trail. I've had to mostly stop being so specific with maps & such. RU-vidrs already ruined our hidden gem, Clear Lake. Not gonna be that guy. ;-)

Thanks for watching! Haha, I'm glad someone caught my little 4WDAction joke 8^) Thanks for the support and encouragement - your videos have been a significant inspiration and influence on trying to improve my own productions. Merci!!

@@softroadingthewest There are also a couple of ice caves in the area. The easiest way to find Crack in the Ground is to take the main highway into Christmas Valley and turn North on the road fairly close to the airport runway that is located by the South side of the highway. There are probably signs pointing the way and if I recall directly the drive is about 7 miles. Even if there are no signs there, just drive until you get to the Southwestern corner of the lava flow. That is the furthest Northern end of the crack. If you have multiple vehicles, leave one where the road takes a sharp 90 degree left hand turn. You will then be able to avoid the roughly 2 mile walk back to the Northern end in the hot sun.

Please tread lightly, a definite natural, national Treasure

Perfect time of year and such a great area for sure. Even with our mishaps, we adored this trip.

It's really been an enjoyable way to spend time with the kids. Often most harmoniously keeping them on separate trips, LOL. Thanks for watching!

Hooooboy you're digging deep into the archives there, haha.

@@softroadingthewest Enjoying the contrast. Also, I see now I should have put my SRTW sticker on with an "uphill" orientation. My bad.

I know a few people who deserve parents like this 💚

I only wish I could do more of it! Thanks for watching!

Rich R I was recently down in the Napa area and discovered there are some OHV areas (Knoxville and Cow Mountain if I remember right) though I find most of my adventures just exploring National Forest and BLM lands. Good luck and thanks for watching!

Nice! That is a fun little road for sure. You'll certainly enjoy the spots seen in this video. One other feature we didn't hit on this trip that is also nearby is the Christmas Valley dunes. I finally checked it out in November of last year and it's a really interesting area as well that's worth exploring if you have time on that trip. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wmlHDmOKEUQ.html

Thanks Jon! Haha, one day I should film how we always make lunch for Day 1 of any excursion: stop at Subway on the way out of town. 8^D

Thank you for catching that! :-)

Thank you! And yep, we absolutely want to get back here to complete our originally planned tour, including Derrick Cave and Lava Cast Forest. I wasn't familiar with Fox Butte but looking at the map, I realized we saw that lookout tower at some point. That looks like a fun stop for next time!

Thanks! It was certainly a fun little adventure!

Thanks for catching that! :-)

Thank you! I'm an accidental RU-vidr, but now that I'm doing it, I have found Andrew's work to be the pinnacle of inspiration for me. I took a peek at your channel and watched your channel intro...some serious adventuring you've undertaken over the years! I wish you the best with your channel and look forward to checking out more of it!

No, I don't actually. I mean, I do have another Instagram account where I used to post random personal "art" photos, but I just didn't have time to keep it up as softroadingthewest got rolling, so I ended up converting it to use to support my business (I do freelance graphic design and commercial photography) - which ultimately is not nearly as artistic or interesting, but at least if it can help keep me afloat I'll be able to afford taking more excursions and making videos. 8^)

@@softroadingthewest Makes sense, and not surprising that you're in design work and pro photography. You have some great pics in your videos. I think you may have all the pieces for a decent side gig running backcountry landscape photo workshops if you wanted!

Thanks to DavidT Medeiros I now know what your career path is. I had a idea it was something along the artistic photography lines because your vlogs were too professional. Earning the big bucks isn't everything but it does make life easier. Doing what you do(workwise) and softroading especially with your two children with you is worth more than to you than any paycheck I'm sure. I can relate to you in some ways in the fact that if there's a cheaper way of doing things to save a buck or two then I'm the same. The fact that you haven't got the hi-tech rig out in your forester (to me) makes it more wholesome because you did it your way. You've certainly got my support.

It's an older Garmin I picked up for cheap off Craigslist. It's imperfect but has been worth having. Even though I now run Gaia GPS on an iPad mini, I still run the Garmin as well, it has proven itself useful many times.

Yes, been there numerous times going back to my childhood. It's totally worth a visit, there's nothing quite like it. It's a small enough national park that you can get the gist of it in a day, but there's enough interesting stuff to check out for a 3-day visit as well (assuming you go late enough in the year). It's very high elevation and most of it is inaccessible due to snow until...not sure, probably well into June at least and possibly July. Right now, you can only drive up the south entrance, and then there's only a small bit of the south rim that is accessible (unless you're a motivated snowshoer or cross country skier.). It's absolutely gorgeous in the snow, but given the choice I'd recommend going when the entire park is open so you can drive all the way around the rim, hike down to the lake and take a boat to Wizard Island (if you're really motivated...it's a daunting hike back up afterwards, heh) and see some of the other features along the flanks of the mountain.

Make it at least an overnight, two day adventure. Once this pandemic is over, you can take a guided boat tour - but the hike in/out is long and fairly steep. There are campsites at another close by attraction, the Spires. I don't recall if there are fire pits/grates.

:-)

Anyone interested in seeing Cow Cave needs to call LaPine State Park office for a guided tour.

Thanks! And that is just how the roads are here. We weren't in or near any dedicated OHV areas with ATV trails. Once you get off the maintained forest service roads, the old primitive routes are generally narrow, single-lane two-tracks. Out in the desert, many of these roads were originally wagon trails which have continued to be used over the decades. And yes, this is high desert. Most of what you see here is at probably ~4,000 - 5,000 feet. For this September trek, it was hot, t-shirt & shorts weather during the day, but well below freezing at night. Thanks for watching!

@@softroadingthewest So interesting! I have a 2009 forester base model manual transmission. New transmission. Need to replace the head gaskets. Thinking about taking a trip to the Upper-Peninsula someday, perhaps.

Hell Hole is a long long ways from the area we were exploring here. Don't think I would take either of my kids down into that anyway. :-)

@@softroadingthewest Yes, that's true - wouldn't take my dog, either. I'm looking at the Middle Fork Complex fire right now and I'm thinking I may have dodged a bullet having left there just this last Sunday.

I purchased both maps seen in this video at the local ranger station (local to that area I mean...it's often worth taking a few moments to stop at the nearest ranger station, they're always helpful and have up to date local information and advice). The map with the colored areas showing BLM land isn't a standard Forest Service map however, which generally only cover National Forest lands - it's "The Oregon Outback" map which is a collaboration between BLM, Forest Service, NPS, and USDFW. I think they made it because this whole area sort of logically "goes together" as an overall destination but it falls under multiple jurisdictions. Other Forest Service maps I have don't demarcate BLM lands even though they are present. For the purpose of research (from home on my desktop computer) I frequently refer to publiclands.org, though it only covers the western U.S. It allows you to toggle on or off overlays showing BLM, NF, NPS, National Wildlife Refuges, and other categories of lands - very useful. The full subscription version of the GAIA GPS app offers a "Public Lands" layer you can overlay onto any other map/satellite/etc they have so you can see if you're on public lands or where some is near. If you're going to be out of cell range you can pre-download map files of just the area you will be exploring so you can see them on your device even with no internet connection. I've only just started using GAIA myself but so far it's very very impressive for planning and navigation on the trail. I'm still a fan of paper maps though...it can be very useful to get a bigger picture than can be viewed on a screen. I am often frustrated that when I zoom out for a wider overview, the roads I need to see disappear. The nice Forest Service maps are $14 each and that starts adding up (plus, the Willamette National Forest near me requires at least three separate maps to cover it all...ka-ching) but when I'm out on the trail and need to refer to them, I'm very happy with the investment. 8^)

Get S1 mobile mapper app

Avenza Maps allows you to buy visitor maps that are georeferenced so it will show where you currently are. Each map is usually $5

It was ~ mid-September if I remember correctly.

Thanks for watching Bill! :-)

Thanks George! Yeah, there are a few more sites on my list to check out in this area, including tracking down the crash site which just seems like an interesting navigational challenge. And still need to get back to Derrick Cave!

@@softroadingthewest I have been using Gaia GPS for the last year and it has been working out great. Lots of maps to choose from. Check it out.

@@swidahooverlanding2867 That's absolutely on my list. I want to get a device larger than my phone though, like a small tablet. Are you using the premium Gaia plan or the more basic deal?

@@softroadingthewest I am using the premium plan. For as much as I use, it and what it offers, I think it is a great deal. I have not used the basic, so I can not compare the two plans for your needs. I am using it on my phone and surprisingly it works quite well even on a small screen. I have no issues with navigating with it. In some of my videos you can see it sitting on the dash.

@@swidahooverlanding2867 I think that makes a lot of sense. I'm looking forward to giving it a go, I think it's going to be a big step forward for my nav game. Thanks George!

Haha...well, I've had better, but it was passable at least. Seems like just about any hot food goes down pretty well on a chilly night in camp though. Thanks for watching!

@@softroadingthewest Oh for sure. Love how you do your videos. Commentary on top of footage, but still cuts into camera commentary. It's refreshing.

It's not stroganoff without sour cream. If you don't have the cream, plain yogurt makes an acceptable substitute.

Crack in the Ground is an easy drive on basic gravel road. Hole in the Ground takes you on some more primitive dirt roads but with 4WD/AWD and decent clearance should be accessible. There were a lot of fine ashy roads which can turn pretty mucky when wet, but in the dry season it was pretty tame.

@@softroadingthewest not the kind of road to take my honda civic hybrid on, so I can see one but the other will be out of reach unless the road is short enough for a day hike

@@sabrstravels6815 Aaah yeah...I didn't know quite what you meant by "puddle jumper" but no, I wouldn't take a Civic to Hole In The Ground. It's not a huge distance away from the highway though, and you could probably get partway in at least. I seem to recall some fairly flat dirt roads at first with some pullouts/campsites, so you could probably get at least partway in. Looks like the western rim of the hole is less than a mile from Hwy 31.

@@softroadingthewest Yup, that I can handle and I'm planning on returning to the Bend OR area again this summer, along with smith rock and some other places I didn't see last year so I can add these two to my list of things to see, I can get close enough to hike to them and hiking is a key part of my travels as to "puddle jumper" it's an old slang reference to a little car but I guess it just isn't used anymore

Ha! Thanks for catching the reference. :-) I'd love to be out adventuring in Sooty or the D-Max or the Dirty 30, but for now the Forester is getting the job done. :-) Thanks for watching!

It's a Garmin, but it's old, purchased used off Craigslist, and I've never updated it. The road data (especially in backcountry/national forest/BLM land etc) is not always accurate...I definitely take what it says with a grain of salt. :-) I now primarily use Gaia GPS, but I do still run the old Garmin as well, because it does sometimes provide insights that are harder to capture in Gaia.

@@softroadingthewest I was in the bush with mine and it lost all contact with the statellites. so that l was unsure of where i was going for half a minute. l have to check mine each time l update it sometimes it wipes all the maps off and you have to reinstall them again but not sure if thats a garmin fault or computor fault Well suppose could even be my fault.

LOL, indeed.

I've seen this situation several times, and it has never been because of selling BLM land, but almost always because of selling private land and the new owner doesn't want to allow the traditional access. Sometimes this is legal, sometimes not. But trying to get it enforced is a major problem. Often it is an absentee landowner with hired hands on the property so if it is "just you" asking they will often make the decision. If it is the authorities, "you'll have to talk to the owner." The few times it wasn't simply private land changing hands and subsequently changing permission, it was state owned land (not federal). In Idaho they don't sell it, but they have done some swaps which is effectively the same as selling when it comes to access.

@@Sylvan_dB I believe that in Oregon, if the only reasonable access to public land is through someone's property, then the land owner is required to allow access. No idea what the penalties are if that access is denied. It is also possible that if it is BLM land, that the law does not apply.

@@buggsy5 That is nice for the landlocked parcel. I wonder how common that is... Around me the access has to be deeded or it doesn't exist.

Well, we didn't use Gaia on this trip (I didn't have it yet) and none of these are technically ORV roads, they're just National Forest and BLM roads that are unpaved. Those roads generally show up in the map data. If you're referring to my Cline Buttes OHV video, I manually created routes in Gaia by referring to the BLM's trail map of the OHV area and cross-referencing satellite view in Gaia to figure out where the Jeep-accessible trails were.

Oh ok, I have been playing with several apps, but I’m not having a easy time finding any “good” roads. I do live in Virginia Sooooo. ??

​@@TheDouglasmayer1 I'm not familiar with that area at all and can't really advise specifically. I know that there is far less public land out your way and it's probably a bit more work and planning to find trails. If you're using Gaia, definitely enable the Public Lands layer, it's super helpful. National Forest and BLM lands generally have a network of dirt roads which are generally accessible to the public. If you haven't already, join the Facebook page for your local(ish) Mountain Roo chapter. You also might want to check out two Subaru channels that are sort of down your way (I think...that corner of the country is all pretty hazy in my head): Power of your Brains ru-vid.com and bruceyyyyy ru-vid.com as they get out on trail runs regularly and you might find some clues in their vids. Good luck!

I don't think I talked about any IPA in this video. This was a few years ago and I don't quite remember, but looking at the can, I think that was actually a hard cider and not beer. Looks like it might've been 2-Towns cider from Corvallis Oregon. For hoppy IPAs, I'm fond of Tricerahops from Ninkasi and Hop Stoopid from Lagunitas.

@@softroadingthewest that could be, my mistake, do enjoy your vids. Been tossing around about getting a Frontier, do you still feel it’s worthy? I’m s Toyota freak, but their just so spendy, thanks for getting back 👍

Quite happy with it so far!

You are a bit north of the actual location. The lava beds that the natives used in that uprising were on the California/oregon border.

@@housetopranch Correct. Odee is thinking of the place called Captain Jack's Stronghold. The indians would not have won, but they would have been able to hold out a lot longer.

LOLOL, that is brilliant - I think I may start referring to it that way! 8^D It IS disturbing to see public lands get sold off (and undoubtedly exploited in some way). In fact on a trip to southwestern Oregon last week I encountered a confusing inconsistency between what my (somewhat dated) GPS device and the (presumably more current and accurate) GAIA GPS app indicated for the boundary of the national forest I was trying to enter. I finally understood once I entered the swath of land in question: the forest had been entirely razed. I'm not against logging - we all need wood and it's got to come from somewhere - and I'm not even against logging on public lands, assuming sustainable forestry practices are in use (which is easy to observe on BLM lands in my area). But it is troubling to see lands that belonged to us all end up in private ownership...that land will never again be accessible to us as it once was. Public lands are in limited supply (especially those which are richly forested) and they can't keep selling off chunks of it forever. Plus, when that happens, up come the gates, and suddenly it becomes more complicated to travel through the backcountry to the public lands that remain...an issue that's very fresh in my mind after last week's excursion...video coming soon. 8^) So that was a long-winded reply, but thanks for watching!

Sorry about that, this is a fairly old production, I still keep trying to refine everything. :-)

Yes, I believe it's called "Big Hole." You can see it in satellite pics, but on the ground, it's fairly heavily treed, so you can't really see the contours of the crater like you can at Hole In The Ground.

@@softroadingthewest Big Hole is MUCH larger, but far less impressive.

One of the nicest, most sincere rangers I've ever crossed paths with. I've generally had nothing but positive experiences with both BLM and National Forest employees.

LOL

Ha! Those names are perfect!!

nope, those names are perfect the way they are . my wife was looking at the map trying to find some interesting places to see. she found hole in the ground and then crack in the ground. i had 2 or 3 months of teasing her about taking her out to find her hole and her crack.

How about Big Hole in the Ground, which is there but you cannot see it because there are too many trees blocking the view? As far as I know Hole in the Ground is the largest relatively uneroded maar in the United States.

They are! I frequently stop at ranger stations and always receive friendly, helpful advice. How very handy it was to have one out in the field right when we needed him! 8^) Thanks for watching!