The Owyhee Mountains are located in Southeastern Oregon and Southwestern Idaho. The highest point is Hayden Peak, (8,403 feet or 2,561 meters). Although a number of peaks reach 7,000 – 8,000 feet in elevation, most of the range is somewhat lower. [1] My own estimate is that those elevations range from 3,000 – 6,000 feet.
Some of the higher elevations are forested with evergreens, but the rest of the range is covered with sage, other kinds of brush, and with grasses. In the spring the grasses are green, but they turn yellow and tan by mid-June.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leases the public land to ranchers for grazing. It provides revenue to help with the cost of managing the land. In the past, overgrazing damaged the native grasses. Consequently, the land is overrun with invasive species of grass and weeds. That contributes to the rapid spread of wildfires in the dry months, and large wildfires are not unknown.
The climate is dry to desert-like in the Owyhees, and so is the scenery. The average annual precipitation in Owyhee County is 9.04 inches. [2] It is dryer down by the Nevada border. In July and August temperatures can exceed 104 F (40 C).
The Owyhees are beautiful, but their beauty is an acquired taste. There are incredible rock formations and deep gorges. Your first impression, however, may be that they are desolate.
Lower elevations notwithstanding, the Owyhees can be very rugged. There are a number of wilderness areas where travel by motorized vehicle is prohibited.
Although there are maintained dirt roads that can be driven with regular passenger vehicles, high clearance four-wheel drive vehicles, or Off Highway Vehicles (OHV’s) and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV’s), are needed on the backcountry roads. In some areas, there are no roads at all, or there are only “two tracks.” The BLM restricts vehicles to established roads and trails.
Much of the Northern part of the range is public land, but there are also large tracts of privately owned land. These are mostly ranches and irrigated farms. A few areas are owned by mining interests. The Southern part of the Owyhees is primarily public land that is managed by the BLM.
Some parts of Southwest Idaho are remote. There are places where you may stand on ground that almost no one has stood on before. It’s quiet there … so quiet that it can bother people who are not used to it. For me, it is a tonic for my soul. You can have some good talks with God there. What is truly important is seen more clearly in remote, rugged places.
If you like to observe birds and animals, viewing is good in the early morning and late evening. My opportunities are limited because I am the primary caregiver for my wife, who is disabled. Nevertheless, I have seen birds of prey, quail, pheasant, rabbits, a rattlesnake, foxes, coyotes, deer, and antelope (pronghorn). God is good – all the time.
I cut my backcountry teeth backpacking in the high-country wilderness in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. It would be a mistake, however, to compare the Owyhees to those areas. The Owyhees are an entirely different environment and should be taken on their own merits. I have come to enjoy the Owyhees for what they are … a challenge.
I’m not necessarily urging people to visit the Owyhees. A lot of people wouldn’t like it. If you do visit, bring extra food, water, and gas. There is no place to get them once you leave the highway.
Always pack out everything you bring in. Please pack out any trash others may have left behind as well. Ethical use calls for the land to be preserved in its natural condition.
The Owyhee mountains may appear to the uninitiated to be a “wasteland.” They are not. They are a large, arid ecosystem, much of which belongs to the public. Public lands belong to each and every American citizen, and they must be preserved in their natural condition for use by the public. Our public lands are our heritage, and public ownership of these lands is our children’s inheritance. If federal agencies mismanage public lands, then we must fix it – not give it to the state governments to parcel out to moneyed private interests. That is my last word on it.
Note: Owyhee is an early
anglicization of Hawaii. The area is
named for three Hawaiian trappers who entered it in the 1800’s and were never
heard from again.
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