The schoolhouse was built circa 1910 and closed in 1937.

Wayne Demaris, whose family lived in the building in the 1940s, remembers it as a focal point of the surrounding community. “What I remember mostly were the dances and potlucks there. Everybody in the neighborhood would come down for the potluck—a lot of sawmill people and people who had ranches around here,” he said. Wayne’s older brother, Ray, attended school there.

The spires here are most likely remnants of a lava flow or volcanic plug associated with the Clarno Formation (Eocene age, approx. 40–54 million years old).

Harder lava flows, or magma that hardened inside the vent (a volcanic plug), often resist erosion better than the softer surrounding rock. Over millions of years, the softer rock washes away, leaving a solitary spire like this one.

The rock type is either Andesite or Basaltic Andesite.

To support the restoration of McKay Creek and protect riparian habitat, fences like this have been installed to keep elk, wild horses, cattle, and other animals out of the streambed and along the creek banks. Reducing trampling and grazing along the banks allows vegetation to recover, stabilizes soil, and improves overall stream health. As a result of efforts like this, redband and steelhead trout are once again able to migrate upstream after being absent for more than 40 years.

Look back toward your 5 o’clock position to see the valley. What you’re actually looking at is the Wildcat Caldera. A caldera is a large volcanic depression that forms when a volcano erupts so violently that the magma chamber empties and collapses. The ground above it then sinks. Calderas are not formed by impacts, and they are often much larger than typical volcanic craters. Over time, erosion, sediment, and later lava flows can obscure their original shape. That’s why you don’t see a clean, bowl-shaped crater here. The Wildcat Caldera is about 40 million years old and roughly 6.5 miles in diameter—approximately 10 miles wide (E–W) and 7 miles long (N–S). Click on the image for an expanded view.

The Twin Pillars are two stark, eroded volcanic spires that rise above the surrounding forest, resembling the ruins of a stone fortress. The formation is linked to the ancient Wildcat Caldera (see above). Geologically, the Twin Pillars are best described as rhyolite intrusions associated with this caldera. Rather than forming in a single central volcanic vent, the pillars likely developed when rhyolitic magma intruded into fractures or ring faults around the caldera. Over time, erosion stripped away the surrounding, softer volcanic material, leaving the more resistant rhyolite standing as the two steep spires seen today.

Following the crest of the Ochoco Mountains, the Summit Wagon Road stretches 70 miles from McKay Creek north of Prineville to the south fork of the John Day River. Established in 1906 as a pack trail after the creation of the Blue Mountain Forest Reserves, it later served as a stock driveway for moving sheep and cattle across the forest. The route also became an important fire-protection corridor, linking many early fire lookout sites. Along the way, watch for old blazes that once marked the pack trail, as well as insulators from telephone lines that formerly connected fire lookouts to ranger stations.

The Summit Wagon Road was part of a larger regional network of wagon routes, including the Dalles–Canyon City Wagon Road and the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road.

Mt Jefferson is Oregon’s 2nd-highest mountain (10,497 ft) after Mt. Hood, but it has a far more rugged and remote-feeling. It’s also one of the most eroded stratovolcanoes in Oregon. Glaciers and time have chewed it into a sharp, craggy, “horned” shaped mountain that looks more like a fortress than a smooth cone. (A stratovolcano is a tall, steep-sided volcano built from many layered eruptions, stacking lava flows, ash, and rock into a single mountain over thousands of years.) Mt Jefferson has dozens of snow-and-ice features, including multiple named glaciers (like Whitewater and Jefferson Park).

Wolf lichen (Letharia vulpina) is a bright chartreuse-yellow to yellow-green lichen commonly found growing on the bark and branches of conifer trees—especially pines and firs—in clean, high-elevation or northern forests. It’s actually a symbiotic organism, made up of a fungus and a photosynthetic partner (an alga), which together allow it to survive in harsh, nutrient-poor environments. Wolf lichen is very sensitive to pollution, so its presence often signals clean air and healthy forests. Like many lichens, it grows extremely slowly, making it a long-term marker of stable ecosystems.