BEND'S BIG BADLANDS.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

BEND - Some Scots favor the highlands, others the lowlands. But Scottish immigrant David Eddleston is a fan of the Badlands, a ruggedly unique blue-gray-green-brown tartan of High Desert topography 15 miles east of Bend.

Eddleston is volunteer coordinator of Friends of the Badlands, a nonprofit group that works with the Bureau of Land Management to eradicate signs of encroaching civilization in the 30,000-acre Badlands Wilderness Study Area.

There are plenty of trails in other portions of Oregon's outback, "but you see nowhere near the amount of topographical features that you see here," Eddleston said last week during a hike to two of the Badlands' more interesting features - Flatiron Rock and Castle Rock.

The seven-mile-loop hike passed twisty-trunked, thousand-year-old juniper trees, small canyons, rock outcroppings, castle-like formations and other interesting shapes created by "pressure ridges" formed when the lava tube developed a hole in its roof and molten lava spilled out.

The resulting landforms have been aptly described as "lunar like."

"To have a true wilderness with such distinct characteristics so close to an urban area is too unique to pass up," Eddleston said.

The rapid growth of the Bend area is one reason the Oregon Natural Desert Association has made obtaining wilderness status for the Badlands "our top priority," said Genessa Goodman-Campbell, the group's wilderness coordinator.

The ONDA works at rounding up public and political support to make the Badlands an official wilderness. It has negotiated the relinquishment of grazing permits by one of the largest ranchers in the Badlands and is working on land exchanges to remove private "inholdings" within the wilderness study area.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management has adopted regulations that make the area a quasi-wilderness.

A management plan adopted in 2005 banned the use of motorized vehicles in the Badlands, to "preserve their suitability for designation as wilderness" while Congress decides whether to create a wilderness area or release the lands for multiple use. The BLM adopted other regulations designed to discourage vandalism - such as banning tree cutting, paintball guns and the discharge of firearms outside of legal hunting.

As a result, the Badlands is a place were people can go to find quiet and solitude minutes from the bustling suburban edge of Bend.

The BLM is working with the Friends of the Badlands to close illegal and extraneous routes, turn two-track jeep roads into single-track trails, improve signage, maintain trailheads and begin collecting data on visitor usage.

While the Badlands "gets significant use" during winter months when many hiking trails west of Bend are blocked by snow, "we don't have any use numbers," said Gavin Hoban, recreational planner for the BLM's Prineville District.

The Friends of the Badlands - or "Fobbits," as Eddleston calls his fellow volunteers in a joking reference to the the Hobbits in "Lord of The Rings," - serve as the BLM's "eyes and ears on the ground," Hoban said.

"They have been great for us because they are able to do things we haven't been able to do, such as monitoring trails and boundaries," he said.

Compliance with the ban on motorized vehicles within the Badlands has been generally good, Hoban said, although "compliance has gone down during hunting season" in the past.

Opposition to the wilderness proposal has come primarily from off-road vehicle enthusiasts who hope to regain legal access to the Badlands.

There are about 50 miles of designated trails in the Badlands, on a dozen named routes. Seven different trailheads serve as entry portals.

Hiking is the most popular activity, but horseback and mountain bike riding are allowed, along with "leave no trace" camping.

"Mountain bikes are allowed as long as they stay on the existing trails," Eddleston said. "But most people say this is not a mountain bike area - the soil's too soft. Even in the winter, it's not that good for bikes."

The Badlands is good for wildlife watching, which is best at dusk or dawn. Most critters seek shelter from the sun during the heat of the day. But evidence of their presence is easily spotted in the tracks left in the soft, sandy soil, formed largely from ash from the eruption of Mount Mazama (Crater Lake).

The area is home to marmots, bobcat, coyotes, mule deer, elk, antelope, rabbits, snakes and lizards. More than 100 species of birds, including prairie falcon and golden eagles who nest in the rimrocks, have been spotted there.

But it's the geology that distinguishes the Badlands from the hundreds of square miles of other steppe land between Bend and Burns.

"It's the lava formations that make it unique," said Goodman-Campbell. "It's one of the last places where you can observe the high desert habitat in its natural state."

She said early residents referred to the area as badlands "because they couldn't really graze livestock, they definitely couldn't farm out here, and they couldn't run any sort of wagon out here because of the lava formations."

Hoban said the opportunity for solitude, the old-growth juniper forests and the "phenomenal geology" are the reasons the BLM recommended the area for wilderness consideration.

The ONDA leads periodic educational hikes in the Badlands WSA. The next hike will be at 7 a.m. Saturday. Details: [phone] or www.onda.org.

THE BEND BADLANDS - IF YOU GO

Getting there: Drive east from Bend on Highway 20. One trailhead is off a dirt road on the left near milepost 15. Another is at the end of a paved road that passes a gravel storage area near milepost 17. Three other trailheads on the west side of the Badlands can be accessed via Dodds Road.

Permits/fees: None required

Activities: Hiking, camping, hunting, horseback riding, wildlife watching and mountain biking are allowed. Rockhounding, paintballs, discharging firearms other than while legally hunting, and the use of motorized vehicles are not.

For your safety: Take plenty of water and a compass and/or GPS unit.

For more info: Contact the Prineville BLM office at [phone]. A brochure that includes a trail map may be downloaded from www.onda.org/get-involved/volunteer/desert-travel-guide/. (Click on "hiking map" link.)