Page Springs Campground, Oregon

We found a gem for our first stop of this trip. A very scenic & well cared for BLM campground located near both the Steens Mountain & Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Page Springs - BLM Campground, near Frenchglen, OR: Site #31 (36 RV sites total) - This site has: water nearby. Campground Notes: vault toilets • dump station not available • river access • trails from campground • trails nearby • 4231’ elevation. April 4th - 9th. Miles traveled: 186 miles (tap on mileage to see route & elevation change).

Pros:
• Well maintained campground.
• First come, first serve - no reservations.
• Very quite.
Cons:
• No dump station.

Overall Experience: Smile

“Backyard of the Day”


Campground & Surrounding Area

After a couple of miles on a washboard gravel road with a couple of very narrow one-lane bridges, we arrived at the campground. Nice spacious sites. Another view from our site. Trailhead for one of the two trails from the campground. View point, looking down at the Donner und Blitzen River. Donner und Blitzen River. Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. Buena Vista Ponds. Ring-necked Pheasant peeking through the tall grass. Sometimes the road just goes on as far as you can see. The Peter French Round Barn. It was built to provide training & exercising for horses in the winter. Single center pole supports the whole structure. A pond inside West Dome's crater at Diamond Craters Outstanding Natural Area. Cinnamon Teal swimming in West Dome's pond. Restored long barn. Lots of cables inside holding it together. Fire tower at the P Ranch is now used only by roosting vultures. This chimney is all that remains of the original P Ranch house. Steens Mountain calling us from a distance.

Tap on thumbnail photos for a larger views & captions. Or, tap here to view on our SmugMug account.


Friday Update: Today, a little auto touring was on the books. This included the forty-two mile self-guided Blitzen River Valley Auto Tour on a gravel road from Malheur National Wildlife Refuge’s headquarters to our campground. We also added a side trip to Diamond, OR, to see the historical hotel. A bit further down the road was the Round Barn. Then we drove through Diamond Craters Outstanding Natural Area.

Saturday Update: It was mostly sunny, but a very windy sort of day. Our plans were to drive the 59 mile Steens Mountain Loop Tour today. The part of the loop that started near our campground still had a locked gate. So we drove ways down the highway to the other end of the loop. After turning onto a gravel road & going about 3 miles, we found the other locked gate. Guess it's not happening on this trip. So instead, we fought the wind & wandered around the main headquarters of the historical P Ranch. Not as exciting as the drive would have been, & not much remains of the original site, but it was something to do.

You know we just had to do it — Cheers to National Beer Day! (Apr 7th)


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