The old fire watchtower at the P Ranch on the refuge.

The "long barn" at P ranch was used to store hay. It was built in the 1880's.

Kieger Gorge at the top of the north side.

Another wild horse. The biologists call them "feral" horses.

Rainbows and wild horses

July 30, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 84 °F

We had a little rain a few nights this week. Not much, but enough to cool things off and leave us with double rainbows and more beautiful sunsets!

We said goodbye to our friend Susan with a farewell dinner at the Narrows, which is the local diner, convenience store, RV park, and gas station about 8 miles from the headquarters. All else is a 40-minute drive or more.

This week, we stayed at the Frenchglenn Hotel for 2 nights. It is an Oregon historic park, and they have old-fashioned rooms with a shared bath in the original building of a few updated rooms in a converted house out back. They serve home-cooked meals. Supper is a family style dinner and is a mystery until the chef presents it.

We spent today on the Steens Mt. There are lots of wildflowers and still snow at the top on the north side of the loop. We went to the top and then came back for lunch, then went to the south side of the loop in the afternoon. It has a very steep one lane stretch with 1,000 ft vertical drop, which we avoided with our strategy today.

On the south loop, we saw wild horses and also visited another historic site, the Riddle Ranch. The summer volunteer caretaker has also worked several years at Malheur, so it was fun to chat with him.

Phil has a new duty this week. He will be checking one of the fish traps twice a day on the weekend. The fish trap has been catching baby grebes (a bird), and we have to let them out. More on that next week.Read more