Steens 2010

It's the annual trip to the Steens and Alvord Desert for the Moon Festival!

(It occurs to me that I did not post the photos from Steens 2009 last year; they're on facebook, but maybe I'll eventually put them here too. For Steens 2008 and beyond, see this.)

The Good Prince and I took it easy. Did a little driving around, watched the moon rise, took advantage of Sven's preparedness and went along on the Malheur Cave tour, napped, played pool, and ate. What else is there to do on a vacation?

All photos are point & shoot.

So you've got to have the standard I was at the Malheur Refuge shot...yeah, it's really blue like that:



And of course I can't resist the grass shot:



Still can't help myself:



Gotta have the cows shot too:



Grass gets two, so the cows gotta get two, too:



At one point, we came across some cows being loaded onto the truck and I said "well, we know where those cows are going." The Good Prince replied, "yeah, well, I can see that they're going into the truck..."

After our encounter with the cows, we arrive at the Alvord playa, right around dusk:



And the moon rises...as scheduled:



Here's an unscheduled visitor kicking up a lot of dusk:



On the beach? (Hand-held at 2 seconds, it was pretty dark.)



On Mars? (Hand-held at 3 seconds.)



In Oregon! This is a lava tube cave, owned by the Free Masons who hold a jamboree here regularly: