Hello all and welcome to another small adventure! To break things up a little bit we decided to head east into the high desert while we wait for the snow to melt in the mountains. Again, official trail heads are closed so we have to look for more out of the way destinations.
This was a trip to an overlook of Whychus Creek crossing. There is a small campground at the bottom (closed) where you can ford the creek in your vehicle, if capable, and continue on the other side. On this day we just did an out and back with a short walk out to the overlook. So let's get started with the walk. :)
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One of the first sights is the orange colored rock of a side canyon that dumps into Whychus Creek.
Looking back west is Black Butte which still has snow on its northeast top.
Side Canyon Shots
The mouth of the canyon.
A panorama of the rim rock on the opposite side. I love taking panos in the high desert, there are just such expansive views.
A little closer look at the rim rock on the opposite side.
The mouth of the side canyon again.
A Little Birding By A Rank Amateur :)
A bird sunning himself on this beautiful clear day. Doing a little research in a bird book and on the internet we came up with this bird being a Clark's Nutcracker.
Suddenly on my right a large bird appeared from the rocks below.
A cropped view of the same photo above makes me think this is a Golden Eagle.
Another cropped shot of him gaining altitude.
A shot of me trying to capture the eagle. I was totally surprised so just started firing off shots and hoping for the best. Unfortunately I had my wide angle lens and auto focus on. Most of the shots ended up having perfect focus of the tree in front of me with a blurry bird in the background. lol!
Whychus Creek and Canyon
Looking at the creek below.
A pano looking northeast as the creek flows in the lower canyon towards its terminus at the Deschutes River. you can also see the road continue out of the canyon on the opposite side (right).
A telephoto shot of some of the colorful rocks on the other side of the creek.
A fully zoomed 300mm shot of one of those same rock formations. Not a terrible shot for hand held but there is some fuzziness and distortion. I guess I will have to try the full zoom shots with my tripod and see if that helps. Could be that this might be the best I can hope for with my lower end equipment. Time will tell. :)
Looking southeast up the canyon.
A park like area on the opposite side. I will have to check this out sometime. :)
A Few More Shots
Ground cover getting ready to bloom.
Lichens on the orange rock.
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Me taking photos. Getting to the top of the mesa in the distance is my next objective. Was going to try to get up there this trip but a poor road choice early in the trip led to having to double back and loss of time. Oh well, just a good reason to have to go back. :)
Photos taken by me, 
Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!