Up High in Oregon’s Elkhorn Mountains

On Tuesday we explored the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway in northern Oregon. However, we did not finish the route. The byway continues all the way to Baker City. It’s actually a good thing we hadn’t planned to finish it as it would have been really late if we had driven to Baker City. John Day was a good place to stop. Today we finished the Journey Through Time Byway and then drove the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway. It is indeed a scenic drive.

To finish the Journey Through Time Byway we drove to Sumpter. We passed through Prairie City which was a nice looking little town with a western theme. However, we didn’t stop. From Prairie City the road began to climb into the mountains.

As it began to climb I wanted a picture of the Strawberry Mountains which loomed over the valley below. I stopped along the side of the road and got out. As I went around the back of the car, a deer came right in front of me. It looked right at me. We made eye contact for a moment, and then it took off back down the side of the road. I went over to see where it went, but it had disappeared. It was quite a moment.

Stopping on the road wasn’t necessary as a short distance farther up the road there is a viewpoint. The location offered nice views of the valley and the Strawberry Mountains. They even had a model covered wagon which had ads for local businesses.

We arrived in Sumpter whose claim to fame seemed to be its dredge. We had no idea what a dredge was although I assumed it had something to do with mining. I was right. Apparently Sumpter was a center for gold mining at one point, and they developed the dredge as a way to mine quickly.

A dredge is actually a rather large machine which floats on water. The basic idea is that the front of the dredge has buckets which go down into a water source and digs up soil. The soil is brought into the dredge where it is washed with the heavier gold settling to the bottom. The rest of the soil is eventually blown out the back. Inside of the dredge there are a lot of machinery and gears, but it’s a little hard to figure out what it’s all for. It was definitely a unique machine.

Nearby is Sumpter’s other tourist activity which is a railroad. The Sumpter Valley Railroad offers rides on the weekends during the summer. They offer some different routes. Of course we were there during the week so no trips were available nor did we see any trains. Sometimes timing is everything.

From Sumpter we drove to the town of Granite which is also an old mining town. To get there we began our ascent into the Elkhorn Mountains. It was obvious that we were now up high as the landscape was pretty much all forest. However, occasionally we would pass by a meadow or field with trees surrounding it. The grass in these meadows was so green. It was really beautiful.

We did notice some unusual things, however. Some of the trees along the way looked like they had been burned. Others looked dead. The burned trees were mostly along the road so it didn’t seem like a forest fire. We also noticed stacks of trees which seemed odd. It would have taken a lot of workers to stack all the trees that we saw. You can see some of these tree piles in the first photo below taken in Granite.

Granite turned out to be a different town. It was set on a hillside, and there were a number of homes around although quite a few seemed abandoned. We didn’t see any location that seemed like a town center with stores of any kind. The town is quite a ways from any other nearby town so it just seemed like an isolated place to live.

A short distance after leaving Granite the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway turns off the highway onto the road leading to Anthony Lakes. Just before we turned off, we stopped at a roadside stop with nice views of the valley.

This section of the byway offers a number of views of the Elkhorn Mountains as it climbs up to its summit. I kept waiting for a viewpoint where I could stop and take a photo, but there didn’t seem to be any. We came to a spot in the road with a wide open view of the Elkhorn Mountains. Traffic had been very light on the drive so I stopped on the right side of the road as far as I dared. I then jumped out to snap some photos. No one drove by in either direction while I stopped so it turned out OK.

As we continued the drive, we did stop at an actual view point. Unfortunately the view was of the valley on the other side of the Elkhorn Mountains so we didn’t see the mountain peaks.

We did eventually come to a place where we could stop and take photos of the mountains easily. We were actually up pretty high, high enough that there were patches of snow around. I put my jacket on as I had expected a warm day and was wearing shorts.

Shortly after this viewpoint we came to the Anthony Lakes area. It turned out it had a ski lift right there by the road. Across the street was a small water area that looked like a pond. It was the only water around we saw so I wondered if this was really Anthony Lake. It turns out it had the fitting name of Mud Lake.

We didn’t see any sign for Anthony Lakes so I thought it must be farther down the road. It wasn’t. The Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway eventually brought us to a viewpoint that looked out over the valley below. I studied the map on my phone and saw that Anthony Lake was a short distance off the road where we had stopped at the ski lift. I don’t know why there was no sign indicating it, but at that point we decided there was no point in turning back to see the lake.

We continued down to the valley below. We stopped in the town of Haines. This was another small town that seemed to try to give the town a western vibe with its buildings and businesses. There were a few stores, but the main shopping area was only two blocks long with the shops all on one side.

The final stop on the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway was Baker City, our destination for the night. Baker City is a nice sized town with a large historic district. There are a number of old and historic buildings in the town. In some ways it reminded me of the historic district of Durango which we visited in Colorado. We walked across town to a cafe for dinner. On the way home I got out my camera and took photos of some of the older buildings.

I had hoped to do some hiking today near Anthony Lake, but since we never found it, that didn’t happen. Most of the day was spent driving, and it was a scenic drive. We got to our motel earlier than the last two days so it was nice to feel a little more relaxed in the evening. Thursday we head to Hell’s Canyon. Be sure to check out that post next week as you keep traveling.