Looking to the Mile 62 bend from the Nena Trail, Criterion Tract (bobcat)

Lower end of the Nena Trail, which follows an old jeep track (bobcat)

Harsh paintbrush (Castilleja hispida), Nena Trail (bobcat)

Stone structure, maybe a cow camp storeroom, Criterion Tract (bobcat)

Sagebrush violet (Viola trinervata), Criterion Tract (bobcat)

Frieda Bend and Eagle Creek from Stag Point (bobcat)

The route described: jeep road in red; off trail in orange; optional loop in gray (bobcat) Courtesy: Caltopo

• Start point: Nena Trailhead
• End point: Stag Point
• Hike type: In and out (optional loop)
• Distance: 11.2 miles
• Elevation gain: 2370 feet
• High point: 2,755 feet
• Difficulty: Difficult
• Seasons: Spring into fall
• Family Friendly: No
• Backpackable: No
• Crowded: No

Hike Description

The Criterion Tract, once part of a sprawling private ranch and now managed by the Bureau of Land Management, covers open slopes, rimrock, and some Deschutes River frontage south of Maupin. This approach to exploring the area begins at the river and follows the trace of an old ranch road to the edge of private property near the crest. Then you’ll head south to meet another ranch road in wide open country and cross a broad bench to a knoll 1600 feet above the Deschutes. An optional loop, only about a mile longer, but requiring route-finding skills and a four-mile walk along the gravel river road, is also described. Spring, with its wildflowers, cooler temperatures, and sunny skies, is the best time to visit.

If you’re doing the loop and coming back along the river road, note the sign on the closed gate which welcomes walkers (but not bicycles or any kind of motorized transport).

An old ranch road ascends the sagebrush gully behind the outhouse. There’s a defined path here, usually more obvious at the lower levels than the traces of the road itself. You’ll soon reach a rolling bench of buchgrass and wheatgrass to pass over a barbed wire gate. In spring, the melodious calls of meadowlarks broadcast over the juniper studded expanse. Invasive cheatgrass has established itself, but you’ll also find balsamroot, milk-vetch, and lupine blooming. Perhaps a herd of deer will trot off, and there’s plenty of coyote scat on the path. Ahead there’s a layered basalt face, and the trail turns up a rocky gully below these cliffs. You’ll reach an open bench with views south to the Mutton Mountains. The road bed curves up, passing an old fenceline and some low stone walls. As you hike higher, you can make out farm buildings at the Mile 62 bend on the Deschutes. The low twin knolls at Stag Point are due south on a high bench.

The road is cut into a steeper slope now as it passes above a deeper gully. Fiddlenecks carpet the tread, and you’ll pass a galvanized trough below a spring. As you turn up a slope, broader views extend to the White River Canyon, Bonney Butte, and Mount Hood. Sheer-sided, rugged ravines appear below. Up here, where low sagebrush predominates, you’ll find buckwheat and phlox blooming. Eventually the road fetches up at a fenceline on the boundary with private property.

You could turn back here, but to extend the hike, turn right to follow the fenceline down into a gully. Pass through the juniper stand at the bottom, and ascend the slope to a large galvanized circular water trough. From the trough, it’s a short distance up to a cow pond with its own small trough below a fenced spring. Frogs announce their presence among the cattails here.

A well-established cow trail from above the pond leads south over the ridge crest paralleling the fenceline. You’ll reach the corner of the private fence, where there’s a BLM sign, and walk through a breach in an older fenceline. The cow trail heads above a small gully. Across the gully, you can see a rough stone structure. Make your way down to the gully towards this structure. There’s plenty of rusting trash in the gully and the remains of a wood stove near the structure, which may have been some kind of storage shed at a stock camp. Continuing on, you’ll pass a couple of curious rectangular rock layouts in a meadow. Cross another gully (an old farm road crossed here), and head up to a broad bench, generally walking south until you come to an obvious old ranch road (the Stag Point Trail).

Turn right on this road, which gently descends past a cow lick. Below you are two small pyramidal knolls, the left one with a pole on its summit. This is Stag Point. When you’re opposite Stag Point, leave the road and begin the short cross-country jaunt through lupine and sagebrush to its summit. Stag Point is crowned by a pole with foot brackets which until fairly recently supported a communications antenna and some kind of wooden structure. An electrical cable still leads down the south slope and over the rim to the relative civilization below. This station has now been abandoned, however, and remains of the equipment and structure lie strewn about the east slope. Also here is a triangulation station and two geodetic survey markers. It’s very much worth scrambling down to the rim from here to get views down to Frieda Point, Dant, and the Lady Frances Mine high above the mouth of Eagle Creek. Scrubby junipers and windswept mountain mahogany trees obtain tenuous footholds on the rough rock.

Return the way you came; otherwise, follow the loop option described below.

Loop option using the Deschutes River Road (12.3 miles total):

When you get back to the Stag Point road/trail, turn left and continue down past another cattle lick. The track circumvents an old cow pond and then offers views down a ravine to the Deschutes. You’ll switchback four times to a lovely promontory, where you’ll get rimrock views north down the river and of the river road along which you’ll be walking. Soon you’ll arrive at a gate posted No Trespassing. Note that this sign was illegally (or perhaps mistakenly) posted by the Portland Deschutes Club, whose property in actuality begins about a mile down this road.

Thus, ignore the sign and pass through the gate to descend the eroded road bed, which hugs a steep slope where bitterbrush, lupine, desert parsley, and balsamroot bloom in the spring. Craggy ramparts rear above, while open benches spread below. You’ll see a broad low ridge ahead leading to a bend in the river. This will be your descent route on public land.

After passing above a large rock and then crossing a gully, you’ll see a steep track heading down to the right. Drop down this track and keep close to the crest of the broad ridge below. Across the Deschutes to your left is the zigzagging access road to the Lady Frances perlite mine. At the high point at the end of the ridge, look down to your right to two junipers. Head down to pass between the two trees. Then continue steeply down through the bunchgrass and rabbitbrush, with rocky faces to the left and the right, towards the gravel road that you see below. Pass over a fenceline to reach the road. You should see a BLM sign announcing the boundary of public land. The BLM’s Four Chutes Camp is just around the bend to your left.

Head right on the road, which will be your “trail” for the next 3.9 miles, passing in and out of public and private land. (On the former, you can leave the road; on the latter, stick to the gravel!). On your walk, look out for geese, ducks, and mergansers on the river, and ospreys and bald eagles overhead. A trio of cottonwoods rustles above the private residence at Windy Point. Then you’ll pass below cliffs at a bend in the river and see the first of several cabins on the opposite bank, where the BNSF railroad also runs. At a broad flat, there’s an open air shed and corral. At the Portland Deschutes Club’s gatekeeper’s house, there’s a tall fence on the road that asks visitors to “sign in/sign out” although there seems to be no provision for walkers to do this.

You’ll pass into a stretch of BLM territory and note a tall dry waterfall in the cliffs above. Then road passes below a few shallow caves in a layer of The Dalles Formation. Soon, you’ll pass out of and then into public land again, crossing cattle grids. Keep your eyes open for osprey nests on platforms atop telephone poles. One more stretch of public land takes you to the closed gate at the Nena Trailhead.

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder
• BLM, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service: Lower Deschutes & John Day Rivers

Regulations or restrictions, etc

• Vault toilet at trailhead
• Dogs under control when cattle are present
• Close gates securely after you pass through
• Respect private property
• Wear bright colors during hunting season

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Stag Point from Deschutes River Hike

• Criterion Tract Loop 4-26-22
• Criterion Tract North: 1/21/22
• Criterion Ranch Tract from Deschutes River

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Stag Point from Deschutes River Hike

Guidebooks that cover this hike

• 100 Hikes: Eastern Oregon by William L. Sullivan
• Extraordinary Oregon! by Matt Reeder

More Links

• “Deep Canyons and High Skies: Hiking Criterion Ranch” (Mazamas)
• BLM Criterion Tract (Elevation Changes)
• Early Spring on the Criterion Tract above the Deschutes (Elevation Changes)]
• Criterion Tract (Northwest Wildflowers)

Contributors

• bobcat (creator)