https://www.inalandscape.org/

We went last year and it was incredible. Fortunately, there was no wind or rain. Can be very harsh if the weather does not cooperate. Primitive camping, leave no trace. Hot springs available, and dinner. We brought folding bikes, which were very handy, as the distances can be a bit long - from airplane, to concert, to hot springs and dinner, back to airplane. Sep 8 Update - dinner IS available! Tickets must be purchased online ahead of the event, as this is a remote setting and everything must be brought in. See post below for details. You are also welcome to bring your own food to the concert itself, or eat in camp.

If you watch the video from the link above, the flat, dusty scenes are of Alvord Desert. Anything with plants in it is not Alvord Desert.

Approximately 20 miles north of Fields, Oregon, at the base of the Steens Mountains, 42.532°, -118.515°

One of the best airplane trips we made in 2017.

Now that's something truly different! I tried to fly to the Alvord a couple of years ago but the winds were so strong over the desert that camping would not have been any fun. I'll but tickets to this year's event and will keep my fingers crossed for good weather. This is unique enough my wife had agreed to go with me and sleep on the ground for the first time in ages. Thanks for making me aware of this.

Here is a short video I made of last year's concert. http://www.earthpoint.us/Downloads/Alvord/AlvordConcert.mp4

We camped on the edge of the lake bed. Fortunately, our camping gear and two folding bikes fit in the back of the airplane.

Thank you for the link. This looks incredibly unique, and I'm hoping to make it.

A few pointers. The weather for our trip (September, 2017) was chilly at night, cool in the daytime, and almost no wind. It was a wonderful trip. However, if the dust was blowing, or if it had rained, it would have been a different story. Keep in mind that there are concerts in interesting and more accessible locations all over Oregon and Washington https://www.inalandscape.org/

The lake bed is firm, but chalky. We spread out a 10 x 10 blue tarp and camped on top of it. We always took our shoes off before stepping onto the tarp. Otherwise, the dust would get into everything. We even mopped off the tarp occasionally. A collapsible bucket is barely visible behind the table. All of our grey water went into that. When full, the bucket was dumped into the sagebrush off the left side of the picture. Otherwise, it would be a muddy mess in camp, and none too pleasant for the next campers.

We brought 7 gallons of water, a cooler bag, backpacking stove, camping gear, hot weather gear, cold weather gear, wet weather gear, satellite phone, the usuals... Sep 8 Update, we did a practice trip to the lake bed yesterday and discovered that we had cell coverage! One or two bars on Verizon.

We camped at 42.527261°, -118.526025°. There are no facilities and no water. There are limited facilities and water at the hot springs which is 1.3 miles away at 42.542363°, -118.533249°. If I remember correctly, looking at Google Earth, the concert was at approximately 42.534599°, -118.515533°, about .7 miles from camp. A farm trailer with hay bales for seats was used to take people from the concert up to the hot springs for dinner, which was excellent. No other transportation was provided (This year, if enough flyers show up, perhaps we could get a ride back to camp after dinner the concert). We could have camped closer in, but since we had bicycles, we opted to be further out.

Visual references are limited for landing, and objects look much closer than they actually are. While Alvord Desert is a dry lake bed, it is muddy and impossible close to the the hot springs and also after big rains.

Alvord Lunch

Thanks for sharing this.
What a unique concert series.
My spouse and I are quite interested.

I see there is a performance at Lake Wallowa August 9. Does anyone know if Wallowa is open to seaplanes? Not listed in the SPA directory.

Pierre

Pierre_R wrote:I see there is a performance at Lake Wallowa August 9. Does anyone know if Wallowa is open to seaplanes? Not listed in the SPA directory.

Pierre

Maybe email \ call Cliff G, our Oregon coordinator.

Just heard good news from Martin Learn. Wallowa is open for seaplanes. I may fly in for the August 9 performance, on the way to Montana. Looks like a beautiful, albeit fairly well developed lake.

Pierre

DINNER AND BREAKFAST UPDATE

I was just emailed this update for the concert. Dinner and Breakfast available. You can also bring your own and eat in camp or at the concert. It is about a mile from camp to the hot springs, where dinner and breakfast are served. I hope to arrange a ride for those that are interested.

Time sensitive—limited seats available!

We are happy to offer Saturday evening and Sunday morning dining options to ticket holders for IN A LANDSCAPE’s Alvord Desert concert.

Dinner (menu below)

You may choose to eat before or after the concert. Service begins at 4pm. The cost is $24 per person and includes a selection of desserts and non-alcoholic beverages.

Breakfast will be served Sunday morning. The cost is $14 per person and includes hot breakfast with pastries, fruit, coffee, and juice.

Food will be provided by Juniper Cookhouse.

Reservations and prepayments are required for meals and must be received by 9 pm, Thursday, 9/13.

To reserve your seat, please purchase your ticket through the concert webpage by clicking the green TICKETS button. Note that separate tickets are required for dinner and breakfast.

Dinner Menu Options
BBQ beef or
BBQ chicken
Dinner roll (butter)
Caesar salad
Cheesy potatoes
Baked beans
Hot chocolate, coffee, soda, water, iced tea, lemonade
Cookies, brownies, peanut butter bar

We hope you can join us for dinner in the desert!

IN A LANDSCAPE: Alvord Desert 5:30pm Sat, 9/15


Saturday, September 15, 2018 from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM (PDT)

Alvord Hot Springs
36095 E Steens Rd
Princeton, OR 97721
Organized by IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild

Eventbrite| 155 5th St, 7th Floor | San Francisco, CA 94103
Copyright © 2018 Eventbrite. All rights reserved.

My wife flew us to Alvord Desert yesterday on a practice run. The weather was perfect. Warm, almost hot, and no wind. It was a bit hazy due to smoke, but visibility was good. We discovered that we had cell phone coverage! One or two bars on Verizon.

I'm REALLY bummed I can't make it this year. I keep listening to his performance of Black Earth on Youtube. Powerful stuff. Thanks to everyone for posting information, though. I hope he keeps doing this series next year.

CAVU

We have tickets and weather permitting we'll be flying in. We're coming from northern Washington State and the weather isn't looking promising, but we'll give it our best shot. Hoping to fly to Bend on Friday and then take the shorter hop to the Alvord Saturday morning. If the weather blocks us from flying, it will be too far to drive, so it's all or nothing. This really intrigues me, and I've wanted to camp on the Alvord since doing the High Sierra fly-in back in 2015. The fingers on both hands are crossed for good luck weather wise.

We made it to Bend for the night on Friday. There was a lot of convective activity in northern Washington so the first half of that flight was bumpy. Once through the Columbia Gorge it smoothed out. Our night in Bend was delightful, but winds on the Alvord are predicted to be blowing 25 starting Saturday afternoon and continuing through the night according to the graphical forecast on the Aviation Weather Center. Now I'm having second thoughts about finishing this trip. Maybe we do a fly over and see what it looks like, but I don't enjoy being sandblasted while camping. That alkali dust gets everywhere when propelled by the wind. Decisions decisions decisions.

Flyhound wrote:We made it to Bend for the night on Friday. There was a lot of convective activity in northern Washington so the first half of that flight was bumpy. Once through the Columbia Gorge it smoothed out. Our night in Bend was delightful, but winds on the Alvord are predicted to be blowing 25 starting Saturday afternoon and continuing through the night according to the graphical forecast on the Aviation Weather Center. Now I'm having second thoughts about finishing this trip. Maybe we do a fly over and see what it looks like, but I don't enjoy being sandblasted while camping. That alkali dust gets everywhere when propelled by the wind. Decisions decisions decisions.

Did you ever make it to the playa? Was curious what the conditions were like, thinking about heading over this afternoon.

Yeah, we had a flight seeing trip over the playa from Bend, but is certainly wasn't inviting! Based on the difference between my airspeed and the ground speed readout on the gps, the wind was blowing 30+ knots and it was ROUGH. We decided to turn tail and head back to Bend. Once there we landed to do some flight planning for a possible trip home to Port Townsend, Washington. Our options weren't pretty. Icing in the clouds and lots of rain, but cloud base was around 4,000' in the I-5 corridor from Kelso to Olympia, WA. There were a few lower clouds and ground fog but we decided to scud run home. It was work and unpleasant, but we made it. All along the way we preserved bailout exits from our path and only continued when the next airport ahead was reporting VFR conditions. Here's some shots from what my wife is calling our $700 eggplant. That's what she had for dinner in Bend on Friday night.

Here's the playa at 12:30 on Friday:


Here's the conditions right over the Alvord Hot Springs:


Here's coming back into Bend. This wasn't bad. The wind was only 7 kts here and pretty well aligned with the runway:


It got worse pretty fast though. Here's the Willamette Valley near Lebanon, OR. The ugliness is visible in the distance


Here's the crap over Kelso, WA. We had about 10 miles horizontal visibility, so it remained doable


About 30 miles from home we saw this rainbow and it opened up a bit more


Then the worst of the WX parted and we got to admire clouds on the Olympic Mountains along Hood Canal


We had a 5,000' ceiling in light rain and more than 10 miles vis when we landed at home. It was good to be back in our own bed and not camping in a dust storm Sat night!

Yikes, that looks dicey. I headed over last night around 7pm and it was landable, but not without substantial sheer from Steens. Beautiful at sunset.

Edit: I see on Hunter Noack's FB page that the show went on. Good for him! I would have bailed due to wind and I couldn't make it anyway. Playing outdoors is always a crap shoot, but it's great when it all comes together. Hoping on next year, and hoping he'll keep Black Earth on the program.

Great pictures of the return flight. Nice cap clouds (or whatever) over the finger ridges of the Olympics along Hood Canal. It looks like you got back in the nick of time.

CAVU