My trip plans were turned upside down with an early winter cold front coming through eastern Oregon.  Low clouds and three days of rain in the valleys and snow at the top of the Steens.  I saw a pickup truck with globs of mud everywhere, a warning to not travel on dirt (now muddy) roads. My planned backroad travels had to be canceled.  Unsure of what to do; with choices of staying at the Page Spring Campground or traveling north, south, east or west; I went to eat breakfast at the Frenchglen Hotel.  Not surprisingly the restaurant was full of people just like me, mulling over what to do.  Swapping stories about where we had been, one couple sang the praise of the Owyhee River and the Lake Owyhee State Park campground.  With paved roads the entire way, that was where I chose to go next and I was glad I did.

Owyhee dam  Photo credit.  Wikimedia Commons Clayton Fraser