Cold Springs Cabin

The last 2 miles are good dirt road, and the last turn is a right at a fork and through a gate. Beyond it stands Cold Springs Guard Station, at 4,707 feet in an upland meadow near Big Summit Prairie, in the Ochoco National Forest east of Prineville. Sagebrush and old-growth ponderosa pine make up most of what grows here, and quaking aspen mixes with the pines around the cabin. The door opens by combination lock. The code arrives in the confirmation letter from Recreation.gov, because the cabin rents only by reservation, mid-May through mid-October, for up to eight people.

Three bedrooms and a horseshoe pit

Inside are three bedrooms with beds, a living room, and two bathrooms with flush toilets, one with a tub and one with a shower. The Forest Service describes the shower as a separate room; Recreation.gov describes a tub with a shower. The kitchen has a propane cook stove and is stocked with basic utensils and cleaning supplies. Its refrigerator runs on propane by the Forest Service’s account and on solar power by Recreation.gov’s. Heat and hot water are propane, and the cabin has solar lights. The Forest Service page says drinking water is available in the building, though its own facility list also states that potable water is not available at the site.

Guests bring their own bedding, towels, washcloths, dish soap, flashlights or lanterns, extra batteries, a first aid kit, and garbage bags, since the cabin is pack-it-in, pack-it-out. The nearest town for supplies is 45 minutes away; the Forest Service names the stores in Prineville and Mitchell. Outside are a picnic table, a fire ring, a standing grill, and a horseshoe pit. Parking is in the turnaround loop at the end of the road.

Wildflowers and wild horses on Road 42

The drive in runs about 13 miles east of Prineville on Highway 26, then right at the Ochoco Ranger Station onto County Road 123 for 8 miles. From there Forest Service Road 42 carries on about 19 miles to the North Fork of the Crooked River, and Roads 30 and 100 lead the last stretch. A Forest Service interpretive sign on Road 42 describes the several bands of wild free-roaming horses that live in the Ochoco National Forest.

Wildlife watching and wildflower viewing are the main pursuits here. Squirrels, chipmunks, antelope, deer, elk, geese, hawks, osprey, eagles, sandhill cranes, and great horned owls live in the area. Big Summit Prairie is known for its wildflowers: wild parsley, bitterroot, cobalt blue meadow larkspur, Peck’s mariposa lily, and brilliant red Indian paintbrush. A 2006 summer paper from the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests listed the drive to Big Summit Prairie in summer as a two-hour outing from Prineville. Walton Lake, the Lookout Mountain trails, Mount Pisgah, and the Bridge Creek Wilderness are nearby.

A summer switchboard in the pines

The present cabin was built in 1934 to replace an earlier one destroyed by fire. In the 1930s it served as a guard station and as a switchboard. During the summer months its operator connected phone calls among the fire lookouts, the guard stations, and the local communities. A fire guard and his family lived in the building. Forest Service employees went on using the station into the 1990s, and Recreation.gov notes that remnants of its past can still be seen. Among the old and fragile things left in the cabin for visitors is a map of Cold Springs.