The Desert is Burning

Yesterday’s wildfire had meant following a slightly different route to reach the cabin. The forest rangers thought they had it under control, but another fire broke out this morning, after we set out.

Today we meant to climb to the summit of Steens Mountain, but after a very long drive (including about an hour on the gravel road), we came to some utility vehicles and a digital “Road Closed” sign when we weren’t far from our destination, and we had to turn around. Befuddled and perplexed, I stopped the car and simply sat there on the highway trying to figure out what to do next and where to go. I pretty much decided to drive up Diamond Lane, which was just to our left.

Diamond Lane led to the Diamond Craters, a 2500 year old site of volcanic rock. We saw a sign for it and saw some fascinating formations, but we had no idea where to park. We ended up parking on the side of the road, walking across it, and wandering around the strange rocks and crevices in the earth while taking photos.

We drove further, with the idea of visiting a place occupied by wild mustangs. We kept driving, till we reached the town of Diamond, which has a population of about five hundred. I spotted a derelict and partially destroyed brick building, so I pulled into what happened to be the parking lot of the Diamond Hotel, established 1898. We went inside—actually, only into the porch, which was semi-indoors because it was made of screen windows. The place was decorated with antiques and generally had a nineteenth-century feel. An elderly couple was on the porch and told us about the Kigar mustangs, that it involved driving for eleven miles on a gravel road, and because of the weather the horses would probably be sitting under trees. They had climbed Steens Mountain in the morning, before the barrier went up. We hadn't left the cabin until after 11 am.

Audrey pointed out that it was already four in the afternoon, and we’d better head back to the cabin. So we did so. However, as we were driving, I was distracted by the fire in the distance—the grey sky billowing with smoke and orange flames. We pulled over to the side of the road and got out to take pictures again. Audrey compared it to the apocalypse. It was a truly disturbing sight, with the constant smoke and flames and sunlight peeping out here and there, and the sun occasionally appearing and burning bright red. Something about the image made me think of Italian Renaissance paintings, or at least one Italian Renaissance painting, though I don’t remember which.

Wilderness fire in Steens; this was not caused by humans

We almost went to Steens Mountain, we saw a bit of the Diamond Craters, we almost visited the Kigar mustangs, and we almost visited the wildlife preserve. It was a day of mostly driving around and occasionally getting out to take pictures and then getting back in the car. At least we had the air conditioning on in the car; outdoors, it felt like an oven in the afternoon. Certainly, we did see a lot and get some idea of the way around.

Though it looks mostly yellow in the photos, the sun looked bright red in person.

The wildlife we’ve seen today includes probably every kind of bird that is in this area. We drove past a wetland and saw cranes, egrets, swans, ducks, and other creatures (including a reddish-brown bird with a very long and narrow beak that curved slightly downward). We also saw pronghorn and deer and plenty of hares, as we had last night. They come out at dusk. Yesterday Audrey saw three burrowing owls (as the driver, I didn’t spot them), and this evening she saw another one and I slowed down enough to see it, but from a distance.