Glaciers put a finishing touch on the west slope of the Steens, carving out 10 U-shaped canyons that flow toward the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Babbitt was entranced with the Steens after an overflight with Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber in August. The Bureau of Land Management estimates that most of the 30,000 people who visit the Steens each year drive and camp along the loop road. The more hardy cross the Steens on the Desert Trail, a 150-mile hiking route from the Pueblo Mountains at the Nevada border to Riddle Mountain, southeast of Burns. Hunters chase sage grouse, chukar partridge, elk, mule deer, antelope and bighorn sheep in the fall.
Anglers pursue redband trout.
We catch 18-inchers in Skull Creek. In the Alvord Desert, Mann Creek Reservoir is a magnet for anglers seeking hefty hybrid Lahontan cutthroats. Alvord Hot Springs, covered by a dented tin shack riddled with bullet holes, is a popular stop for campers and birders. The Steens provides a refuge for the coveted Kiger mustangs and several other wild horse herds. Donald Mansfield, a biology professor at Albertson College of Idaho in Caldwell, says the plants suggest that the range was linked to the Sierra Nevada and Northern Rockies in earlier times.