OWSR No. 45: Wildhorse and Kiger Creeks

Mountain Biking above Fifteenmile Creek

Wildhorse Lake and Wildhorse Creek | Photo: Zach Collier

Quick Facts

  • Managing Agency: Burns District (BLM)
  • Designated Stretch (Wildhorse Creek): Headwaters to the private property line at the mouth of Wildhorse Canyon. Little Wildhorse Creek from its headwaters to its confluence with Wildhorse Creek.
  • Designation Length (Wildhorse Creek): 9.6 miles (9.6 miles Wild)
  • Designated Stretch (Kiger Creek): Headwaters to the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area Boundary
  • Designation Length (Kiger Creek): 4.25 miles (4.25 miles Wild)
  • Outstanding Remarkable Values (Wildhorse Creek): Botanic, Recreational, Scenic, and Wildlife
  • Outstanding Remarkable Values (Kiger Creek): Botanic, Fisheries, Recreational, Scenic, and Wildlife
  • Wild and Scenic River Designation: October 30, 2000

More Information

Celebrated by Zach Collier on Septempber 28, 2018 by hiking in the watershed of Wildhorse and Kiger Creeks in the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.

Stories

Oregon's Fifteenmile CreekZach Collier: I've had several attempts to visit the Steens Mountains thwarted by closed gates and snow. To learn more about Wildhorse and Kiger Creeks I decided to go in September to avoid any problems.

I first visited Wildhorse Creek and had a great view of Wildhorse Canyon and Wildhorse lake from the top of Steens Mountain. After that I drove over to Kiger Creek and scrambled down into it's watershed. While hiking off the trail I stumbled across this patch of snow. This canyons was famously carved by ice age glaciers so I wondered if this snow was a fluke or the last remnant of an ancient glacier.

Learn about Oregon Wild and Scenic River No. 46: Molalla River >>

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