Dark rain clouds were piling up over the top of Marsing Hill as we left Marsing, Idaho on September 1, 2000. Cloud shadows crept along the slopes of the highest hills, giving them a misty veil where showers spilled from the dark clouds. The air was cool, clean, and smelled of wet sagebrush, grass, and soil. It smelled so good!

Bob Moore, Katie Fite, her dog Nesa, and I were going on a fact finding tour to the Saddle Butte Wilderness Study Area. I had not been in this area before although I had flown over it with a friend in 1988.

This area is the site of a massive pipeline project that is supposed to be finished this year. We wanted to see how work was progressing for ourselves. We had heard reports ranging from one third of the pipeline was done to reports of road blading being done by Malheur County Road Department in the WSA without BLM's knowledge. It was beautiful day to take a trip into the beautiful Owyhee Desert.

We turned right at Rome, Oregon and drove west for  roughly five miles. We passed the striking eroded "Rome Pillars" in the upper southwestern corner of the Rome Valley which is a pretty valley of irrigated hayfields surrounded by sage-covered hills terraced with black lava outcrops intermingled with white, chalky hillsides. These deposits were evidence that this area had once been underwater millions of  years ago.

Winding through the weathered pillars of green chalk, the road comes to a junction with another good gravel road. Turn to the right, turning left would take you back to the main highway. This road drops down into another smaller valley of Crooked Creek. You will come to a metal gate - close the gate so that the horses don't get out of their pastures. Travel down to the Y and take the right fork.

This fork travels up a small wash, crosses Crooked Creek and then you come to another gate. Take a moment to look at the clear water of Crooked Creek. This creek is really a big artesian spring that bubbles out of the ground roughly 20 miles upstream. The water is always clear, the flow is constant, and the temperature is stable. This stream, unlike others in this area, including Jordan Creek that empties into the Owyhee in the Rome Valley, never dries up during the long, hot summer.

I must report another fact at this point. Traveling along the highway, I noticed Cow Creek, north of Jordan Valley, and Jordan Creek, south of Jordan Valley, are both dry. I am 52 years old and I have seen what I thought were severe droughts. I've seen Cow Creek go dry - no pools - just sand and rock in the exposed creek bed. More disturbing is that the wild hay meadows on both creeks are dying - turned brown and lifeless.

Antelope Reservoir, the only large irrigation reservoir in the area, is also dry. So are all of the irrigation ditches - this whole region is in the grips of a severe drought. Keep this in mind as I describe the vegetation as we continue on our trip. Remember to close the last gate - you are on public land now.

We traveled up a long hill on a good road that was 8 feet wide - a single track that was not wide enough for two cars to pass in most places. But it still was a good road when dry - rains would soon make it muddy so we kept a close watch on distant storms. This is part of the Kiger Road (790) and signs of grading were evident until we reached a Y.

We turned right to continue on the Tub Springs Road (691) after passing a BLM sign saying we were entering Saddle Butte Wilderness Study Area. Unlike the road to the left that was graded, this road had not been graded for a long time. Sagebrush and rabbitbrush had sprouted in the center of this 8-foot wide road but the vegetation had also grown to the edge of the tracks. It still was a road because we could see it stretching ahead of us, but it hadn't been maintained and graded until we reached Chalk Basin.

We saw several places yellow ribbons had been tied to sagebrush to mark something. No writing or stakes were present at this first site but we guessed it was a well and stock tank. We had a rough map provided by the BLM from Barry Nord, Natural Resources Conservation Service out of Ontario, Oregon, who is working on this project. We saw no stakes indicating the exact route of the pipeline during our entire trip and no writing on any of the many yellow ribbons we encountered.

Without Barry's rough map, we had no idea what these ribbons represented. Nowhere did we encounter survey stakes with coordinates or even mile marker or limits of construction. In short, I saw no signs of survey at all - I have to ask how you can design an irrigation or watering system without at least determining elevation and grade. All the leveling projects I've seen on irrigated farmland required these figures so the water will run to the end of the field without forming a pool in the middle.

We traveled along the road, which is rough; 10 miles per hour was our average speed. We climbed out of a small drainage to drive up a steep, rough road that literally went over the edge of a small lava outcrop. The road at this point was solid black lava. We have an increase in elevation of 71 feet but what concerns me is that we were not on the original road.

The original road lay roughly 100 feet to the east and it was washed out - impassable to vehicles. It was rutted with a deep ditch too deep to drive through. The pipeline will probably go up this old cut unless it follows the road center like it is supposed to. I doubt that because of the lava outcrop. Once the pipeline is buried, how will it be held down to prevent the pipe from being exposed when the soil washes out? It will wash out eventually because this is a drain for spring snowmelt on this small ridge. Also, in muddy conditions, I doubt if a loaded water truck could make it - this is a bad spot.

We saw a couple of stakes with yellow ribbons (but no writing) that we took to be sites for wells. I wonder how far they have to drill through lava for water. No indication or writing was on these stakes. No work or soil disturbance had been done and during this entire trip we saw no heavy equipment. No holes or core sample sites - just a stake. I think these wells will have to be around 200 feet deep at least.

I base this on my experience floating the adjacent Owyhee River during the spring and early summer months. I have knowledge of only one spot where water comes out of the high lava cliffs to flow into the river - this place is called "Weeping Wall."

This is drinkable water - we stop to fill our water jugs on every trip. This is the only good, unpolluted water source for 15 miles each direction - both upstream and downstream. There are springs near the Rigors Hot Springs and near the Rustlers Cabin. They taste of sulfur and flow out of a marshy riparian area that is on private land and grazed - I don't drink from these springs.

It seems to me if this rock formation at Weeping Wall is representative geologically of the area we are driving today, these wells will be very expensive. I'm not a geologist but I'm guessing this 200-plus-foot cap of lava extends back to where the stakes are because they are only a couple of miles west of the river.

These wells will have to go through this lava to get to the aquifer - it is a small aquifer - I've never seen it dry. It flows roughly the same amount of water all year - see the plants in the photo and the moss that would not survive if the aquifer dried up. Where the water comes from, I don't know. I do know it is cold, clear, and safe to drink. I've stopped here every trip since my first in 1985. I have never taken ill - I float roughly a trip each year since then although I missed the last two years.

Is there any geological report mapping this aquifer so we know the source? Will these wells pollute the aquifer so that E-coli gets into the aquifer and rafters' water supply? Or worse yet, will these wells dry up the aquifer? It is not very big - I think that these wells could dry it up.

We traveled on and saw chukars, antelope, a family of sage grouse but not one jackrabbit. No rabbits at all in roughly 20 miles of driving. Vegetation near the road was mostly cheatgrass, mustard, Russian thistle, some squirrel-tail grass, few isolated bunchgrass, and rabbitbrush.

Further from the road are small areas of pristine high desert vegetation - stands of squirreltail, bunchgrass, ricegrass, bitterbrush, blue sage, buckwheats, sagebrush; and very little cheatgrass. What disturbs me is that all the vegetation is short - due to the drought. The cheatgrass is about 4 to 6 inches on the flats near the road where the water tanks will be. The native vegetation isn't over 15 inches at best - most is shorter - even the bunchgrass. What are cattle going to eat during the winter? Looks to me that the native areas will be used very hard since the cheatgrass is so short. The whole area I traveled looked that way - very short grass - too short to even cover the small pebbles that make up the shallow soil.

Noxious weeds are invading in the form of cheatgrass and Russian thistle (tumbleweeds). These plants are present, established and part of the vegetation. Russian thistle blows across this flat country during the winter and spring, rolling into the river corridor. They accumulate at the base of the cliffs from roughly the Weeping Wall downstream to Bogus Falls, roughly 8 miles. These deep piles, most about 10 feet deep, completely kill the native vegetation. Nothing grows under these huge piles - not even sage - the soil is bare. These areas are coming down from the base of the rim, slowly destroying the vegetation in the river corridor.

When I first noticed these areas on my first trip - they are quite obvious from the river but invisible from the top - they were about 50 feet wide and two feet deep. In the course of 15 years, they have increased to perhaps 300 to 400 feet wide, 10 feet deep, and form a gray band of dead tumbleweeds under the cliffs for 8 miles of river. The tumbleweeds continue to pile up and heavy grazing on top will only accelerate the process. I have been watching this and it is happening very fast - nothing has been done by anyone to stop or slow down the process.

Other weeds such as whitetop will come in but for now this area is in good shape. I saw no Scotch thistle at all, a welcome sight, but patches of whitetop were within 50 feet of the newly-graded road. With further disturbance, we will have more weeds - I guarantee it. It is just a matter of time. I consider weeds to be the biggest single threat to this entire area - both sides of the river and the river itself. Whitetop grows on every sandbar from roughly Weeping Wall to the mouth of Bogus Creek.

Who brought it in is now a moot question. The plant is here, it is established, and it will take the river. This is whether or not any cows go to the river. The plants scatter their seeds on the sandbars. The sandbars flood every spring. Whitetop is now invading the canyon below Bogus Falls - this is from seeds floating downstream and becoming established on pristine sandbars. The canyon is very beautiful and too steep for cows, but the whitetop is there and is increasing.

Very little has been done to control this weed - by anyone. If nothing is done, I fully expect to see whitetop invading every riparian area and spring along the river from Rome to Birch Creek - I give it another 20 years. These observations are my own views of what might happen - the timing might be different but the end result will be the same. We stopped in the middle of a large, 100-plus-acre plot at the end of the small road overlooking Chalk Basin. According to biologist Katie Fite, this was pristine with original plants all present. The whole rim around Chalk Basin is one of the most pristine areas and also beautiful chalk formations are in this basin.

From the river this is the site of Pruitt's Castle, a very magnificent land form and site of four popular river camps. It is a great place to hike with a large spring about halfway to the rim. I've hiked this area several times - it is beautiful and fragile. The water in this spring is very saline - it leaves a white line along the edge of the creek from the spring all the way to the river.

I've hiked the length of this tiny stream, roughly one mile from the river. A salt sedge grows here but the water feels slick; Prince's plume grows wild near the bottom of the canyon. This plant is beautiful but unpalatable because it favors soils high in selenium which is poisonous to livestock. A primitive road, worse than the one we traveled on, goes down into this bowl. Rain was threatening and the road looked bad - it would be a good place to get stuck. Katie walked down to the road to see if it had been graded - it hadn't yet - but the grader had come to the junction 200 yards west of us.

I don't see how cattle could be kept out of the riparian area and also from going down to the river. This area is one of the most popular spots on the entire Owyhee River. Yes, cows will go in and out of this area. One trip in April, I followed two cows and their calves up the creek to the springs above, then through a small draw in the rim to the other spring at the road's end. There is good forage in this basin; it is in pristine condition but the water isn't good.

The cows I followed out had been living on the river where the grass was. I was told that this extension was added after the original plan had been agreed on in court. This whole section is another lawsuit waiting to happen, in my opinion. And the road is so steep that more than grading will be needed to construct the lines, tank, and well or pump.

We traveled along the rough, newly-graded road that is now 18 feet wide rather than 8 feet. Upturned rocks with white underlinings shone in the sun. Plants were pushed out and soil disturbed along the left side of the road - perfect for new weeds to get established. We found three large patches of whitetop, seeded out, growing west of this road from 50 to 100 feet. Prevailing wind is from the northwest - seeds will soon blow into this newly exposed soil.

Roughly two miles north, the grader crossed the road to grade the other side. Why we weren't sure - until we came to the junction near Chanis Rock. The road had been graded on both sides now as far west as we could see.

We were able to photograph what the original road had looked like before grading, because the county hadn't finished the other side. Look closely at the photos - you decide whether this road is a way or not.

A black thunderstorm was coming from Saddle Butte so we decided to go back. It was a muddy trip because the clay soil clung to our tires. We had to use 4-wheel-drive over the level just to keep moving. We slid sideways on the grade dropping into Crooked Creek. We were going down­hill - it would have been real interesting if we were going uphill. A truck full of water would have slid off the road and it had only rained for two hours.

We reached the highway about 6:00 PM, so this trip took all day. The thunderstorms racing across the wide desert were very beautiful. Rainbows followed the storms while the sun glistened on the wet grass. White curtains of hail shone against the dark blue rain under huge cumulus clouds. The air was clean and smelled so good - the long, hot, dusty summer was finally over!