Day Trip to Nevada and Oregon: Annular Solar Eclipse, Alvord Desert, Leslie Gulch
You probably heard (and I hope saw?!) that last Saturday, October 14, we had an annular solar eclipse over much of the United States! An annular solar eclipse is when the sun creates a “ring of fire” around the moon because the moon is too far away for a total solar eclipse. The path of totality (or annularity, in this case) included Oregon, Nevada, and Utah. All three of those states border Idaho, and the closest spot for us in Boise to see annularity was southeast Oregon/northern Nevada. (The sun was at most 85% covered in Boise.)
After seeing the total solar eclipse in 2017, I knew I wanted to head south to see the annular solar eclipse. It’s not quite as exciting as a total solar eclipse since the sun isn’t completely covered, but I still didn’t want to miss it since they don’t happen around here all that often and it was so close! We decided to turn this day trip to Nevada into a day trip to Oregon as well and made stops at Alvord Desert and Leslie Gulch on the way home.
Day Trip to Nevada and Oregon
Before the Solar Eclipse
I knew I wanted to see the annular solar eclipse, but I wasn’t sure where exactly we would end up. I really was set on driving south of Wells, Nevada, which is a drive we did earlier this year on our way home from Utah. It’s about a 5 hour drive down to where I wanted to be near the centerline. I looked at hotels multiple times. Winnemucca was sold out well in advance, but Wells still had rooms available until about a week before the eclipse. I definitely would have preferred to drive down the night before and stay the night so I wasn’t so tired the next day, but we did save at least $150 and likely more by not staying the night anywhere. The hotel prices were insane!
Other than figuring out which of three routes we were going to take (to Winnemucca, Elko, or Wells in northern Nevada), the main issue we faced was the predicted cloud cover. A low pressure system was set to impact the western US (including Nevada) starting on Saturday, and the weather models had a really difficult time resolving the cloud cover. We didn’t know if we would head towards Winnemucca or Wells until the morning of the drive. We opted for Winnemucca, not really seeing a great option either way but Winnemucca was closer!
Annular Solar Eclipse, Nevada
Korri and I loaded up the rental car and left the house at around 5:30 am on Saturday morning to head towards Winnemucca, Nevada, which is about a four hour drive from Boise. I got about three hours of sleep…or less lol. It was a rough morning! We stopped in Nampa for a quick McDonald’s breakfast (love their hash browns) and coffee drinks from Dutch Bros before heading to Oregon! It was a fairly uneventful drive in the dark. There wasn’t even that much traffic; I had been expecting more. The traffic did start to pick up behind us a bit as we headed into Oregon and made it to Jordan Valley for a bathroom break. I actually had to wait in line for the restroom! The gas station was full of folks on their way to Nevada.
As we drove south and the sun came up, we noticed the clouds…everywhere. It was much cloudier than we had anticipated and even sprinkled at one point. Once we made it through Oregon and into Nevada, the partial solar eclipse had started but we couldn’t see it because of the clouds. We made another pit stop in Orovada for gas and snacks (and the restroom); a lot of people stopped in McDermitt on the border and Orovada wasn’t that much farther south on US Highway 95. There were a few people set up to watch the eclipse along the highway.
Instead of driving all the way to Winnemucca, we turned west on State Highway 140 to stay along the centerline and because we saw blue skies and sun in the distance! By then, it was a race against time. We drove about 30 more miles before finding the sun and pulling off of the highway. We had about 15-20 minutes to get ready for annularity. By that point, you could tell it was not as bright outside. Korri set up his camera for a time lapse; it took a photo every second for around 10-15 minutes.
At 9:20 am Pacific Time, the sun completely surrounded the moon! It was absolutely wild. It was still really bright out (just dimmer than usual), so if you hadn’t know there was an eclipse, you probably would have just thought there was a cloud. It also felt cooler outside and I was glad to have brought my lightweight puffer. (I was also shaking from adrenaline, haha.)
We were in a desolate part of the northern Nevada desert, so there wasn’t a whole lot around us, but there were a few birds chirping a few minutes before annularity. There also weren’t many cars on the highway! I hope everyone stopped to look up at the sun (safely with eclipse glasses, of course). Annularity at our location south of Quinn River Crossing lasted close to 4 minutes and 30 seconds (I didn’t time it exactly, but we were very close to the centerline).
A cloud passed over the sun at the end of annularity and prevented me from catching Bailey’s Beads (Korri got them in a photo), but the cloud was thick enough to see the sun without the eclipse glasses. After snapping lots of photos and videos, we took off north on Highway 140 to head back home! We stopped at a rest area a few minutes north where there were lots of people hanging out after the eclipse. I used the horrible pit toilet that didn’t lock… I tried to be quick, but of course a man walked in on me lol. Oh well. Probably won’t ever see him again, right?
There was no hand sanitizer and I forgot to grab some for the car, so we stopped at Denio Junction so I could wash my hands. There was a really cute restaurant there that was PACKED with people. In fact, every little town with a restaurant that we passed was super busy after the eclipse.
Alvord Desert, Oregon
We decided we’d check out the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon since it was on the way. After crossing the Oregon border, we took Highway 205 north until it turned into a gravel and dirt road. (Google Maps tried really hard to not route us this way, presumably because of the road and additional travel time.) The Alvord Desert is a large, 12 mile by 7 mile dry lake bed located in the lee of Steens Mountain to the northwest. It is at just over 4,000 feet in elevation and averages only 7 inches of precipitation a year.
As we drove up to the Alvord Desert, we spotted a couple of of cars and a bunch of trucks and SUVs out there driving around kicking up dust. There were also a number of groups camping. (The desert also experienced annularity though for a much shorter period of time.) Korri and I drove the rental car down a somewhat sketchy, washed out dirt road to get to the playa. After that, we drove to the center of the dry lake bed. It really felt like we were all alone out there because everyone else was so far away!
I spotted a few cars racing each other. We couldn’t even hear the cars when they drove by! Also, there was a bit of a mirage; the people and vehicles that were in the distance looked like they were on top of a sheet of water! You can really see it in the photo below I took of two trucks racing each other. Pretty cool, huh?! It’s caused by heated air immediately above the ground refracting the light.
Steens Mountain is located on the northwest side of Alvord Desert and rises up to just under 10,000 feet in elevation. It’s the largest fault-block mountain in North America at 50 miles long! There was already a dusting of snow that really made the rock formations at the top stand out. The windward (western) side of Steens Mountain is forested and where you’ll find the Steens Mountain Wilderness area with tons of hiking trails, camping spots, and a scenic drive. This part of Oregon gets some pretty high winds and nice thunderstorms.
After checking out Alvord Desert, we headed north along the gravel and dirt road past Steens Mountain and met up with State Highway 78, where we turned right (south) to work our way back towards Jordan Valley.
Leslie Gulch, Oregon
After a quick pit stop in Jordan Valley, we headed north to Leslie Gulch! Leslie Gulch is a canyon to the east of Owyhee Reservoir in Malheur County. It is accessible from US Highway 95 in far southeast Oregon and is actually closer to Boise than any major cities in Oregon. It’s about a two hour drive from Boise and makes for an easy day trip. Look for the small signs as you drive along the highway. They are easy to miss! You’ll take a gravel and dirt road for over 20 miles. I found the signage to be not great so be sure to know your route (take a screenshot of it) before you hit the road in case of spotty cell coverage.
Leslie Gulch is a beautiful canyon with a variety of different rock formations and other cool geology that rivals parts of southern Utah. It’s just less accessible and not as well known as the parks of southern Utah! Some of the boulders and cliffsides were absolutely massive; it was hard to capture the full scale in photos. The canyon was named for a Silver City pioneer, Hiram Leslie, who died there from a lightning strike in 1882. Like I mentioned above, eastern Oregon gets incredible storms. I’d see them on radar and wish Boise was getting them, too, haha.
We drove through fairly quickly as we wanted to make it home before it got dark, but I took a large number of photos and videos. It was my first time there but definitely not my last! It’d be fun to do a proper day trip and hike around the area. I did notice at least one building about halfway down the road that possibly had pit toilets. The full length of the road that ends at Owyhee Reservoir is about 8 miles. At the end, there’s a boat ramp to access the reservoir.
The road through Leslie Gulch was super washed out and rutted in spots, and Korri remarked on how much worse the road conditions were now than a few years ago. I would recommend taking a vehicle that can handle a bit of a rough ride, especially if you plan to visit after it rains or snows. There are some campgrounds in the canyon and we saw a number of camper trailers.
We ended up getting home around 7 pm, dropping off the rental car, picking up pizza, and getting back home in time for the Boise State football game (which was… not good). Korri and I were both exhausted and falling asleep on the couch during the game! It was an early night for both of us. I was glad we saw the annular eclipse as well as checked out a couple of new-to-me spots in Oregon I’ve been meaning to visit! It was a fun adventure. 🥰
Did you see the annular solar eclipse? Have you visited either of these lesser-known spots in Oregon? Let’s chat in the comments!
Outfit Details: Abercrombie coat (old; similar), J.Crew Factory sweater, Lululemon leggings, Bombas socks, Earth sneakers (old), Madewell hat (old; similar)