Alvord Desert to Owyhee Wilderness

Introduction so in August of 2023 we had a jeep that we had outfitted for overlanding with the dogs we had a couple of short overnight camping trips under our belt to work out the Kinks and we had a drone that I didn't even know how to fly I mean how hard could it be right for our first big overlanding journey in the Jeep we set our sights on a place that I really wanted to explore aahi Wilderness we didn't know it when we set out but this was going to be one of the most amazing Adventures we had ever taken one that is still the best we've ever had unfortunately I was a complete novice at capturing it all on camera I had never shot a video documenting an adventure before so I didn't know what the hell I was doing we have since vowed to retrace our steps this video is my best attempt to share what we experienced in that first trip with the footage we were able Heading to First Camp West Valley Resevoir to capture I had taken some time using Google Earth and Gaia to try and plot out a plan and potential campsites along the way so when we set out I had a plan for two stops between home and haahi the first of which was a tiny little Lake just off the 395 called Moon Lake however every dirt road we tried seemed to terminate on a barbwire fence and the trails that were previously marked no longer existed so we ended up on the back side of a little lake called West Valley Reservoir it was nothing special but it was a good dispersed campsite where the dogs could explore and it made for a good quiet first night sleep Off to Alvord Desert Playa [Music] the next morning we would head back out through the little town of leley and head up the 395 into Oregon just over the Oregon border and north of the town of Lake View you can catch the 140 Highway East through some beautiful but also very remote areas things got really buggy right around the town of Adele the 140 Highway crosses back over the Oregon border into Nevada but it takes us to a small place known as Deno Junction from here we take a left on the 292 which only goes for about 2 miles before turning into the 205 at the Oregon border also known as Fields Deno Road Deno Junction or Fields is going to be a great place to top off with fuel we're about to start a very long stretch of off-road with no Services about 40 Mi north of Deno Junction you get your Alvord Desert Playa first look at the Albert desert plia [Music] get on the plan I'll pick you [Music] up the sun will rise welcome to my home we ride on the away fre as bir sweet Sol time Stay By the Sea to the [Music] dwn I show you all the places there know meet my friends I'll take you where the sunl meets the shore C around and around to car and drive from Co to C 100 miles until we di to your [Music] favorite Albert desert pla is an otherworldly expanse of flat cracked Earth stretching endlessly under a vast Open Sky the surface pale and Sun bleached is marked by intricate patterns where the dry mud has fractured in the Relentless Heat standing on this immense empty plane you are enveloped by an overwhelming sense of solitude The Horizon seems infinitely distant with no significant life or movement only the occasional Whisper of a breeze stirring the dust the silence is profound almost palpable broken only by the crunch of your footsteps on the brittle ground in this vast emptiness time feels suspended and and the Solitude brings a deep almost meditative quiet that is both humbling and awe inspiring if you enjoy the content don't forget to like And Offroad from Alvord Desert to Owyhee Wilderness subscribe the next morning we set out for aahi Wilderness with a plan to exit the pla on the east side so we pointed toward what looked to be an exit and started our drive across the expanse I really wanted to get Drone footage of this but unfortunately I found the SanDisk SD cards that I purchased from the sandis store on Amazon were all counterfeit and I couldn't use them at all we searched and tried to find our way out of the plot on the east side it was Maze of brush but we kept running into dead ends where we were blocked by sections of water that we couldn't see all the way across so we decided to try the North End of the pla and as luck would have it we stumbled onto this road exiting at the North [Music] End we had made it to Mickey hot springs but as you can see by the sign this is clearly no place for a dip then we arrived at a spot where flash floods had just erase the trail completely we had to improvise our way down through the wash and up the other side to where we could see the trail in the distance [Music] oops this Trail would cross back and forth across the wash many times before finally exiting at the top of the canyon [Music] [Music] I think it's fair to say these trails are very seldom traveled if at all anymore almost every section of Trail had been washed out and become more of a streamed than a trail [Music] [Music] man it was cool running across a pack of wild horses out here we had already been on the trail for hours and it was clear by looking at the second ply off in the distance that we were a long ways from [Music] anywhere I spotted something out in the sage off the roadways so I walked over to check it out this dead horse carcass is a stark reminder of nature cycle I'm starting to question my decision on this [Music] route we finally made it to a gravel road after several hours of off-roading we could finally cover some decent ground but there was still some distance between us and our campsite on the aahi river arriving in Three Forks was breathtaking the river was absolutely beautiful [Music] after dinner we l into the St St s that night and we were treated to fighter jets twisting through the sky above us with their I need SD Cards for the Drone afterburners the closest place to get SD cards for the Drone was going to be a Best Buy in NAA Idaho so we figured we'd head up there and come back into aahi from the north through the lake but not before taking in the sights of this amazing Canyon [Music] [Music] the views from above are incredible [Music] [Music] [Music] after picking up the SD cards in NAA we decided to hit a a brewery and Meridian and it's a good thing we did a storm moved in as we were eating our pizza so we decided to spend the night and let it blow through before resuming our Entering Owyhee from the North [Music] adventure to enter Hawaii from the north we came in on aahi Lake Road this follows the aahi river Upstream to the aahi dam [Music] the Dam's construction was completed in 1932 during the Great Depression and at the time of its completion it was the tallest Dam of its type in the world at more than 400 ft tall it generates electricity and provides irrigation water for both Oregon and Idaho [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Ascending to Devil's Gate the ascent from the lake is a steep 4x4 Trail called fisherman road that climbs approximately 2,000 ft up the East wall of the canyon [Music] [Music] although this section of Trail is not terribly rough there are some very tight switchbacks with great [Music] views gu said there were more people but I don't I don't think anybody notices what would you do if someone was coming down back up to a spot like [Music] this there was an interesting feature on the map called Devil's gate with a name like that we had to see it for ourselves [Music] oh [Music] Succor Creek we decided to head to suker Creek for some lunch have time to try out look at this wow is get last along the way Noel spotted this cave on the cliff up above so I had to check it out [Music] the shade trees down at Suka Creek turned out to be a great place for lunch and the scenery did not disappoint [Music] [Music] Finding Camp in Three Fingers Gorge there was a specific location that I really wanted to Camp while we were here in aah Wilderness but I didn't want to get my hopes up and then find it occupied however I really didn't have a backup plan for that night either get footage of this right now oh my God this is amazing there's nobody here this is that we've got this whole Canyon to ourselves at least for right now oh my God circle area as we entered this surreal Canyon I began to see the campsite from a distance and there was nobody there I was so excited Oh my Jesus at the end of this long and rough dirt road is a cathedrall likee campsite with a single fire ring this spot is absolutely incredible and one of the best campsites I have ever found [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Three Fingers Rock the next morning we made our way up to a landmark called three fingers Rock from this vantage point you can really get a feel for how vast this Wilderness Area is we had not run across another human since we entered the area from the lake if you ever really want to get away this is the place to do it [Music] Leslie Gulch to Dago Gulch [Music] we made our way down to the water of the aahi river at Leslie Gulch thinking it would be a great place for an afternoon picnic spot but the Flies were horrible so we trecked our way back up Canyon to gch so we can take the dogs for a walk [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] up [Music] [Music] after a long day of exploring and Wheeling we made our way south to the market store in Jordan Valley for some supplies and ended up camping on the North Fork of the aahi river the next morning we'd be heading up to Jordan craters to check out coffee pot crater Coffe Pot Crater the Jordan craters volcanic Fields is the youngest of a series in the eastern part of Oregon at 3200 years old the most recent flows come from coffee pot crater [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Birch Creek our next destination was Birch Creek this is a historic Ranch that was established in the early 1900s The Ranch now long since abandoned is now designated a historic rural landscape on the department of the interior's national register of historic places accessibility to the area is dependent on road conditions and a high clearance four-wheel drive is recommended in my research before the trip I had spotted an island Downstream in the river that looked to be accessible and I wanted to camp on that island overnight but this meant we had to cross the river for access to the other [Music] side neither one of us were sure we could make it across the river I think we go straight ahead you so yeah all right [Music] [Music] this was devastating after braving both the river and a super narrow shelf road we hit a dead end the cliff above had collapsed into the river and taken the road with it we now had to back up to a safe place to turn around and go back across the river to camp a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we had one more place in haahi will to check out before heading to steen's Mountain The The Overlook Overlook we woke to an overcast morning but luckily no rain overnight the road out of Birch Creek can be really treacherous in the rain [Music] once out of the canyon and on smooth dirt roads we were able to lay down some miles The Overlook is a high vantage point with an incredible 360° view but the view looking South Down the aahi River Canyon is truly spectacular [Music] [Music] [Music] in my research for this trip I learned there was an incredible view of the Albert desert paa as well as a view of the Gorge from a top steam Mountain we pointed ourselves in that direction with a goal of camping on Steam Mountain [Music] Steens Mountain [Music] we found a small Meadow on on the west side of steam Mountain at a pretty high altitude near the top and as we pulled up the skies opened up and it absolutely poured this was the tail end of the same storm that flooded burning men Festival I set up the awning so we would have a place to huddle and wait out the rain while we made dinner the dogs absolutely Lov this Camp spot we had this whole Meadow to ourselves [Music] and Noel knocked out one more amazing breakfast during the last ice age pressure from glaciers on Steam Mountain the largest Vault block mountain in the Northern Great Basin carved a half mile wide u-shaped trench through the mountains Basalt now know known as Kyer Gorge as you can see here weather is already starting to move in by the time we got to the Albert desert Lookout visibility was near zero so we drove down the mountain to French Glenn which is an amazing little town you got to visit and just like that our adventure was over I can't wait to revisit aahi Wilderness again there's so much more to see and I really want to get back to some of these amazing camping places I hope you guys enjoyed this and thank you for watching [Music]