Jaci Dawn

I promise: just a couple more desert posts. I’m merely trying to prolong my visit to the desert and pretend I am not sitting here in the city, surrounded by asphalt and traffic. I am also in denial that the shadows are getting longer and the days shorter and cooler.

I’m going to pretend all I have to do is get in my rig and drive on down to the Alvord Hot Springs…

The hot springs are a place of gathering: you never know who you will meet there (or if they will have clothes on – best to use some discretion when you have children with you). Part of the springs are walled in and most of the nudists move into the private tub when they see people with children approaching – we’ve never once had a bad encounter with rude people. Met some strange ones, but strange is what the desert is all about.

I like to think of the hot springs as a melting pot of humanity in the center of absolutely gorgeous nowhere. We usually go early in the morning when one is less likely to meet other soakers. Not that we’re anti-social or anything: we’ve met some of the most interesting folks in the hot springs and they’ve come from all walks of life. The equalizer is we all come to the desert because it draws us there: archaeologists, ranchers, cowboys, land-sailers, upland game hunters, cougar and antelope hunters, bird-watchers, neo-hippies on a road trip, European travelers exploring, arthritic men and women looking for a cure, families and singles, men and women.

Private parties like the land sailers and upland bird hunters maintain the tubs and they are open to the public (free) year-round.

Someone got drunk and forgot their clothes in the “dressing room”. The “door” opens to a vast six-mile wide desert view: it is VERY private except for the bovine observers.

Closing off the hot water means plug the pipe from the hot springs otherwise the tubs get wayyyyyyyy too hot.

After soaking, it’s time for a drive onto the desert floor.

The playa is 11 miles long and 6 miles across. We didn’t even go half-way but I can assure you that it all looks like this. No wonder they land-sail on this! It can get brutally hot or brutally cold here.

That’s the east view of Steens Mountain. The desert is at 4,000 feet (1200 m) and the Steens is 9733 feet (2966.6 m)

After all this fun in the sun, it is time for a run down to the town of Fields (population 86 in 2000) and to Fields Station for a World Famous Milk Shake.

I intend to linger in the desert for a few more days just to dry out my skin.