The High Desert of Eastern Oregon

On Wednesday, we finally said goodbye to Idaho as we traveled west into Oregon. We really enjoyed all the beauty Idaho has to offer - Way to go, Idaho!

Getting Closer to our Destination!

We crossed from Idaho into Oregon on the backroads and traveled through the high deserts of Eastern Oregon. The back roads are not highly traveled and there weren't many other vehicles on these roads. There weren't many houses, either. In fact, there wasn't much of anything, except some nice scenery. 

When you think of desert, you think of a flat, sandy, hot, and arid environment. The deserts of Eastern Oregon are certainly hot and arid (temps over 100 again today), but they aren't flat and sandy. They are very hilly and mostly have a sagebrush groundcover. At times, you can see snow capped mountains in the background. This part of the country has a lot of volcanics and we drove through some lava beds, and also saw lots of lava protruding from the hills. In addition, the scenery in the desert consisted of grass covered rolling hills, irrigated fields, pastures, ranches, outcrops, cliffs, etc. It was an amazing drive. 

Even though the desert is very dry, we did have a little bit of rain on the drive today, and even had hail at one point. It was very windy and at times you could feel the camper swaying. Good thing there weren't any other vehicles on the road! We are camping in the small town of Burns, Oregon. 

A reservoir in the desert