Christmas Valley Back Country Byway | Oregon

Traverse through Oregon’s high deserts with the Christmas Valley Back Country Byway. This 93-mile byway is an off-country adventure on ash and pumice dunes, amongst lava flows, and through volcanic fissures. Christmas Valley Back Country Byway offers outstanding opportunities to interpret the BLM’s multiple-use management story. Mining, cattle grazing, wilderness preservation, threatened and endangered species preservation, wild habitat enhancement, and cultural resource management are all represented along the route. 

Byway Details

Sites of early archaeologic and palaeontologic investigations are located along the route at Fort Rock Cave and Fossil Lake. The Byway offers interpretive opportunities for the history of the settlement of the west as the route passes early homestead lands. Geologic features include three major lava flows offering dramatically different volcanic features, a large sand dune area covering over 15,000 acres, and features such as the Crack-in-the-Ground which offer unique geologic sightseeing. Wildlife viewing opportunities vary with the seasons. The route passes through crucial deer winter range that provides shelter and forage for over 30,000 deer each winter, and Elk have been returning to the area. Birdwatching opportunities are enhanced with migrating bald eagles, as well as many other transient and resident species. 

Attractions & Features

• Fort Rock Cave and Fossil Lake: two significant geological and archaeological sites in central Oregon's Fort Rock Basin. Fort Rock Cave hosts several 9,350 to 10,500 year-old sagebrush sandals while Fossil Lake gives visitors an opportunity to observe the remains of creatures that occupied the area 10,000 years ago.
• Three major lava flows offering dramatically different volcanic features
• The Christmas Valley Sand Dunes Wilderness Study Area is the largest inland shifting sand dune system in the Pacific Northwest. Over 8,000 of the 15,000 total acres remain open to vehicle use.
• Opportunities for wildlife sighting, including a crucial deer winter range housing over 30,000 deer each winter. 
• Crack-In-The-Ground: A 2-mile, 70 feet deep volcanic fissure. A trail at the crack’s end allows visitors to walk along its length, where the temperature could drop to be twenty degrees cooler than its surface. 
• Plenty of opportunities to interpret the BLM’s multiple-use management story