Two days in the Oregon Outback with The Boy

Petthefish

New member
So this past weekend my wife was out of town and it was just me and the boy. So instead of being stuck at home bored off our butts we got a wild hair and went for a two day drive someplace we had never been. South East Oregon aka the Oregon Outback.

Our weekend started at 4am Saturday morning we left Portland in the poring rain only to be met with Snow going over the Cascades something I had yet to drive in with out new Jeep needless to say it was great BFG Mud terrains handle snow like it was dry payment.

Our first stop was at a place that is dear to my sons heart its named Hole in the Ground a large volcanic explosion crater. my father in law passed away back in September not only was he my hunting and fishing buddy but he was my sons best friend. Grandpa and him use to go here shooting any time they passed the area.
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After a few shots out of grandpas rifle we moved on to Ana Reservoir and river we have both wanted to go fishing here for quite some time so this was our chance knowing we would be gone overnight it was strictly catch and release for us but it was awesome!! We ended up catching 10 trout each before moving to the river where we landed a few more on the fly rods. We will be back!
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We arrived in the small town of Lakeview about 4pm checked into our hotel for the night. As far as hotels go it was just a place to sleep it was clean but it was ghetto lol.
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After a nice nights sleep the boy and I left the hotel with two things on out mind to find Greaser Petroglyphs and to hunt some coyotes.
We did not find the coyotes but we did find the Petroglyphs. I have never seen nor has my boy seen Petroglyphs in the wild so this was a real treat.
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after a few failed coyote stands
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We moved on to our next goal to find the rare Oregon sunstone
After a stop in the small town of Plush that is anything but plush we hit the longest gravel road I have ever driven. Bored with driving and knowing there was nothing you can hit out here but sagebrush I figured no time better to let the boy drive for the first time. Now mind you this is our new jeep that is less then a month old. Needless to say he did great!!

he drover all the way to the BLM sunstone collection area safe and sound we headed out into the sagebrush to find our treasure the ground is literally covered with little sparely sunstones. We had a blast and walked away with a few handfuls of sunstones. We will be back and more prepared to dig for them instead of surface collection.
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After leaving the sunstone area I put our home into the google gps and I have to say google found the way but I have to think google knows I have a Jeep cause if I did not have a jeep I would have never made it down road 7185! This road was nothing more than tire tracks in the sage Rocks mud and a few hill climbs that were more than anything I have taken the jeep on before. Needless to say the 2015 Jeep JKU did not let me down it handled the road like I was driving in the mall parking lot.

Road 7185
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Fun!!

We made it home tired and sunburned about 10pm unloaded our gear and crashed We had one heck of an adventure but wow was it fun!!
 

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dwmgcs

New member
Sounds like a great time and a great bonding experience with your son, hopefully soon we will get you out on a Browns Camp run, we were talking this last weekend about trying to hit TSF once a month, so there should be opportunities coming up
 

dwmgcs

New member
That would be awesome I want to go and try driving on the dunes that's one thing I never have done.

That can be arranged, I have been sand duning my whole life and TSF isn't that far from Sand Lake, could be a nice little side trip
 
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