August 15, 2007: Hawk Valley, Harney County, OR: Having successfully negotiated the descent of the “hill climb” and intersected with the Long Draw road, Chris and I proceeded NW toward Hawk Valley. Hawk Valley, Hawk Mountain, Hawksey Walksy Lake… what were they thinking?
Once in Hawk Valley you might notice a curious thing. A series of standpipes follow roadside for several miles. The pipe must be about two feet in diameter and sticks up maybe 18 inches above the ground. An occasional watering trough in near proximity leads one to believe this might be a water pipe. To the northwest, about as far as you can see, a large storage tank sits at the base of Acry Mountain. We didn’t see any livestock and none of the watering troughs contained water.
Several spur roads exist in this area. One of those thin red lines on the map heads toward Lone Mountain and may connect across the ridge to the Domingo Pass road. Next trip we will do some exploring.
Near the base of Acry Mountain we find a closed gate barring the road. We proceed, making sure to close the gate behind us.
We briefly discuss following 6176 north in a loop around Beatys Butte but our time is limited so we head SW instead, back to US 140 at the Oregon/Nevada border. We met three men on ATV’s, hunting antelope. They aren’t having much luck. But before we reach the highway we surprised one in the road as we came over a slight rise… it didn’t wait for us to take a picture.
Back on the highway, after completing 60 miles of remote country driving in the past five hours, we opened up the throttle and the windows, blew out the accumulated dust, and headed for Slide Lake where we intended to spend the night.
byLarry
