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Please click her for - Part One
The Search
We had hiked up from Wildhorse Lake and
needed a spot to stay for the night. Success followed with driving down a seldom
traveled dirt road. Showers, dinner, and we were set to relax and take in
another quiet evening.
We left Steens Mountain the next morning. We had a search to do on our way back home. After breakfast and packing up, we were ready to go. Our destination was in neighboring Lake County, but a heat wave was searing the Oregon area. It was hot where we were headed, even with an elevation of 6000 feet. We planned for an evening arrival with the hope for cooler temps. We topped off with gas at the tiny general store in Frenchglen at $6.75 a gallon. This travel plan allowed time for a diversion. I thought of it as we drove down the steep western escarpment of Hart Mountain.
“Let’s go find the Glass House,” I suggested to the Lady. “Its location is marked on our map, been on the map for years.”
The Glass House is a curiosity. I’ve seen it mentioned from time to time as something the “overlanding” community likes to seek out, with mostly speculative information about its origin. Our thoughts on the Glass House were, “Maybe, if we’re in the area, and have some time.” It took an hour to drive the bumpy 7.5 miles out to the Glass House.
Walt Benson was – from what I’ve read – quite a character. He was a noted wine grape grower in California’s famed Sonoma Valley. He was often described as a free-spirited old hippie. In 1992 to 1993 he built a glass house in Lake County’s Warner Lakes Basin. The home’s outside walls and roof are glass panels supported by a metal frame. What in the world was he thinking? We called it the “Glass Oven” on our visit when, inside, we felt like ants getting roasted by a kid’s magnifying glass. In the winter, this must be bone chillingly cold. The place was quickly abandoned and appears to have been built as a whim by an eccentric individual. The current ownership is muddled. I could find nothing definitive – “it’s on the Hart Mountain Refuge, or The Nature Conservancy lands, or bought by ‘The Friends of Hart Mountain’.” It is freely visited by the public and has a visitor logbook roasting inside. It has engaging artsy touches.
It is small with two large floor to ceiling high wood stoves that point to winter’s bone chilling cold.
It has a kitchen area.
A bedroom.
A bathroom with shower.
A wood deck larger than the house.
And an extremely efficient summer solar oven.
It is, indeed, a curiosity.
It also has damage from vandalism.
The temperature was in the nineties when we visited and the skies were dreary gray with smoke from the Yosemite area’s Oak Fire.
Here are three links that were sources for information –
The Glass House Mystery Solved
Walter Benson Builds a Glass House
Two other sites we came upon piqued our interest more so than the Glass Oven.
One was a lonely headstone.
Charles Fonda was wounded April 28, 1868 during a battle here with hostile Indians. He was gravely wounded, shot in the knee. He did not survive the standard of care at that time – amputation of the leg. The headstone was placed here in 2013. Source for information – Oregon Wilderness Gravesite.
The most exciting find for us was an exquisite field of basalt boulders adorned with ancient rock art. It is our nature, when we spot an excellent possible rock art site, that we stop and investigate.
This site received bonus points for excellent pictographs also. I will enhance with DStretch.
It was now mid afternoon, hot, but we wanted daylight to find our way, out rough backcountry roads to the site we wished to search for. The Lady navigated using the waypoints I had plotted on our map. It was a gawdawful rough slow drive – 2.5 hours to travel 14.5 miles. After the two hours we had done getting out to the Glass Oven and back, the Lady was ready to abandon ship. “Is this EVER going to get any better?” she complained as she rolled and banged back and forth. How was I to know? It was my first time out here.
“I expect the roads will remain the same – rough and slow. Want to stop? Want to turn around?” I asked.
“I don’t want to turn around and drive back over what we’ve already done!” she firmly announced.
“I don’t want to stop and camp. I’ll never get back in the truck. Let’s keep going. I want to find the site.”
We crawled along. Our destination was marvelously remote.
It was 1800 hrs. and 94°. Shade and a nice breeze made it quite tolerable. And evidence told us we were in a great area to search – a stacked rock shelter or hunting blind right at our camp.
Back at the end of the last ice age, this area was a rich, well-watered, high steppe teaming with wildlife. We were camped at a long dry small lake. Our imaginations quickly took us back to when this was an absolute oasis for ancient peoples. We were looking for their art work, their stories pecked out on rock faces.
In the cool of the evening, we searched the long line of rim rock below the lake bed.
It was dark when we returned to our truck and camper. We slept well with the peaceful quiet of this place. All our windows and the back door were open all night. The overnight low was 70°. Oregon was sweltering in a heatwave. We woke early to search the rim rock along and above the dry lake. We walked and searched with our morning mugs of coffee.
There was ancient art work, seemingly, everywhere. It was varied in age, showing centuries of human use of this area. This visit was worth the torturous drive.
Our favorite was the small jumping sheep.
We quickly packed up after breakfast. The heat was building. This will be an incredible area to return to in cooler temperatures. After a good night’s sleep, and great success with our search, the torturous drive out was, maybe, just a little bit easier. I’ll allow the Lady to answer that one. Ask her sometime. The drive was made very enjoyable by the wildlife sightings – over 150 pronghorn and the largest badger, right in the middle of the road, we’re ever seen. It made me proud to be a native of Wisconsin.
We had one last thing to do before we headed home. It was time to go Tiger hunting. Our friends, The Teds were starting out on a trip. We were returning from ours. We spotted the white Tiger Adventure Vehicle when it turned north off of highway 140 in the Warner Mountains. We followed it out to Vee Lake and joined the Teds for one evening together camping.
The wildland fire smoke had calmed, at least we were seeing some blue sky. In the road we found a baby robin, out of its nest, and it could only fly a few feet at a time. Nothing looked more forlorn than this young bird.
Although there was no traffic, we slowly moved the little creature off of the road and into the sage. Later we saw it interacting with an adult bird. We hoped for the best.
It was a relaxing night with the Teds, swapping stories, catching up, and hearing their travel plans. Thanks for the fine evening!
The drive home the next day was, thankfully, uneventful. No pickups turning into the highway without stopping or looking both ways, attempted to take us out. It had been a grand adventure – alpine high country with Wilderness fly fishing and our ever-continuing searches for remote ancient rock art sites. And, please let me know if you have an effective fly pattern for taking those pesky mermaids.
Thanks for following along!
Wonderful TR, thanks for letting us tag along!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome!
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