I found myself in some seriously empty country last fall in South Eastern Oregon. Steens Mountain is remote, massive and bordered on all sides by wild ranch lands, wildlife sanctuaries, and barren desert. Thumbing through my phone at an overlook of the Malhuer National Wildlife refuge I discovered that there were Mustangs roaming the wild lands around Steen’s Mountain. Interesting I thought, I’ve never seen a wild horse before. Didn’t actually even know they existed to be completely honest, but with no agenda for this particular trip and at the doorstep of a tremendous wilderness area, decided to give the Mustangs a look.

The Kiger Mustangs were first discovered in this area in 1977, yes, 1977. How could we not know they were here as late as 1977? The land is that remote and that empty, that’s how. So, headed off on a wild horse chase as soon as coffee was down and camp was packed up. The roads are pretty rutted up in this area and was getting bounced around a little on my way up the 30 or so mile drive. I found the landscape, while empty and barren to be quite beautiful. Birds of prey, antelope and deer were common sights, but no Mustangs. I perched up for the night at an overlook that had just enough room for the camper. Pulled out the spotting scope, binoculars and the camera gear just in case I lucked out. As the sun dropped I clicked off the last few shots of an old gnarled tree and went to bed without a single sighting of the Mustangs.

As is usual, I was out of bed early and looking for a good landscape to photograph in the early light. What was I going to do? Again, no sign of the Mustangs and such open, barren country left little to photograph once the sun got into the sky. Decided to make a move and drive the road back out the way I came in. Take it slow and look for Mustangs on the way out. If I saw them, great. If not, I would head a little more towards Steens and camp up another gravel road in hopes of running across them. About the time I thought it was a lost cause I saw something faint out of my left eye in a small stand of dead timber. It was a group of Mustangs headed up to a ridge. Slamming on the brakes, I grabbed my camera which is always on the passenger seat and got this shot. Even though the timber was mostly dead and there was very little undergrowth, the horses were well hidden. Their coats mixing in perfectly with the colors and tones of this region. If they hadn’t been moving I probably would have never seen them.

**My first look at the Kiger Mustangs!**

What a cool experience! Mustangs in Oregon and I had never even heard about them until the day before. The Kiger Mustangs are descendants of horses brought to North America by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. Over time, enough of them became wild and have roamed the west ever since. It was a lucky break that I ran across them. Once again, I took a risk and travelled to a place I didn’t know much about and came away wanting to go back. Sometimes you just need to put yourself out there and see what happens.

So it was on to Steens mountain for some more off road camping and hopefully some more Mustangs if I could find them. 60 miles of gravel brought me up and over the Steens mountain loop. It was spectacular country and unique to the Pacific Northwest in my opinion. Steens Mountain is about 50 miles long and rises from about 4,000ft to above 9,000ft at it’s peak. It’s a mammoth mountain that is difficult to take in over a few day trip. The mountains spine runs North and South while on the east side it drops 5,000 plus ft to the Alvord desert and on the west it stretches out in a more gradual descent to lonely ranch land for as far as you can see. The border land of Steens is where I would find the Mustang if they were there.

After 2 days traversing Steens it was time to head to the Alvord Desert. I had seen no sign of the Mustang while on Steens but knew my best chance was on the 40 mile drive through the border lands before I was back on pavement. I found them about half way through my trek that morning and made a few more images. In total I believe there were probably 40-50 Mustang, some in the far distance out of range.

I spoke to one other photographer who had made 3 separate trips to the region and had never run across the Mustangs. I was very fortunate to find them not once but twice and it was a really cool experience that I never saw coming. That’s what makes adventuring with the camera so much fun. I can plan a trip out to the most minute detail but then learn something along the way and everything changes.