Oregon’s Flattest Natural Racetrack Was an Ancient Lake Bed 15,000 Years Ago

The Alvord Desert Playa

Oregon’s Alvord Desert is the state’s most surreal landscape – a 12-mile-long cracked playa surrounded by snow-capped peaks. This dried-up lakebed stays so flat and hard you can drive on it, camp anywhere, and watch desert mirages dance across its surface in summer.

Here are 12 fascinating facts about this desert gem that’ll have you planning your next road trip.

Oregon’s Version of Bonneville Salt Flats

The Alvord Desert Playa is Oregon’s answer to Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, with its unique twist. This big dry lake bed stretches about 12 miles long and 7 miles wide, sitting 4,000 feet above sea level in Harney County.

During dry months, the playa becomes perfectly flat and hard-packed, smooth enough for small planes to land on. The surface contains mineral-rich clay and sand, creating a natural playground for photography and land-speed racing.

It Was Once a Deep Lake

This desert was once a huge lake that reached into Nevada during the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene periods, roughly 3.5 million to 15,000 years ago. At the end of the Ice Age, a massive flood from Lake Alvord released an estimated 40,000 cubic yards per second of water into the Owyhee River, significantly lowering the lake’s level.

Scientists have found proof of this watery past, including old shorelines in the surrounding mountains and lake sediment deposits. As the climate changed over time, the lake dried up and left behind today’s flat desert.

Booming Noises in the Sands

Strange booming sounds often echo across the playa, similar to distant thunder or deep drums coming from nowhere. Locals think these sounds come from small earth movements beneath the desert floor.

Similar sounds occur in other deserts worldwide, including the “singing sands” of Death Valley and the “barking sands” of Hawaii. Scientists believe the sounds happen when the surface expands and contracts as temperatures fluctuate.

Some suggest the sounds are caused by wave propagation through the sand, with frequencies ranging from 70–105 Hz.

Those Trippy Cracks

The dry season transforms the Alvord Desert into a natural art display with a network of polygon cracks spreading across the playa like a giant puzzle. These geometric patterns form when clay-rich sediments dry and shrink through sun and wind exposure.

The cracks typically create hexagonal patterns, with cells ranging from inches to feet across. Their depth and width change with the seasons, becoming most visible during summer when water evaporates fastest.

The Amazing Rainshadow Effect

Despite being in rainy Oregon, the Alvord Desert gets only about 7 inches of rain each year. This dryness results from a triple-barrier rain shadow created by three mountain ranges: the Coast Range, the Cascades, and Steens Mountain, which stands 9,700 feet tall just west of the playa.

When storms move inland from the Pacific, they drop their moisture on each mountain range’s western slopes. You can experience this dramatic contrast by driving from the green western slopes of Steens Mountain down to the dry playa below.

Alvord Hot Springs

Around the dry playa, you’ll find bubbling hot springs where you can soak while enjoying desert views. These hot spots exist because of the same forces that formed Steens Mountain.

Underground water flows through cracks in the Earth’s crust, gets heated by deep magma, and rises back up as hot springs. Alvord Hot Springs stays between 170-180°F and needs cooling before you can safely soak.

Nearby Mickey Hot Springs features at least 60 vents, plenty of mud pots, and a small geyser. Borax Lake contains boron compounds that support unique microorganisms found nowhere else.

People Have Lived Here for 10,000 Years

The Northern Paiute are indigenous to the Great Basin region, which includes areas like the Alvord Desert. Artifacts and petroglyphs show humans have been here for at least 10,000 years. Steens Mountain, served as a refuge and resource hub, especially during conflicts like the Bannock War of 1878. ​

Native people used the hot springs for healing and actively hunted waterfowl during wetter periods. They collected seeds from desert plants and gathered volcanic glass for tools.

Borax Mining Brought More People

The late 1800s brought a short mining boom that drew the first major wave of settlers to this remote part of Oregon. High levels of borate minerals attracted the Twenty Mule Team Borax Company, which started operations here in 1897. These minerals, formed when the ancient lake dried up, were valuable for making soap, processing metals, and preserving foods.

Miners scraped the mineral-rich crust from the surface and processed it nearby but stopped after just a few years when better deposits were found in Death Valley, California, leaving ruins you can still see today.

Two Women Set Land Speed Records Here

Stuntwoman Kitty O’Neil set the women’s land speed record of 512 mph here in 1976 using a three-wheeled rocket-powered vehicle called the SMI Motivator. This record stood until 2019 when racer Jessi Combs reached 522 mph in the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger.

Sadly, Combs died during this attempt but received the record posthumously from Guinness World Records. Speed enthusiasts still come to the playa today, including land sailors who use wind-powered vehicles that can reach over 60 mph using just wind power.

It Was Named After a Civil War General

By the way, the Alvord Desert takes its name from an officer who never actually visited it. General Benjamin Alvord commanded the U.S. Army’s Department of Oregon during the Civil War from 1862 to 1865.

Before his military leadership, Alvord worked as a mathematician and botanist, something that came in handy during expeditions. He was also involved in surveying and mapping parts of the Oregon Territory. Government surveyors have likely named the desert after him in the late 1800s, as they often honored military figures.

The Temperature Changes Here Are Extreme

The Alvord Desert has some of Oregon’s most dramatic temperature changes. Winds blow almost constantly, shaping the landscape and increasing evaporation.

Summer temperatures regularly exceed 90°F, with ground temperatures sometimes reaching 140°F. Despite the heat, the high desert elevation causes temperatures to drop quickly after sunset, sometimes falling 40-50 degrees in a few hours.

Winters are milder, though nights often dip below freezing. The playa stays dry and cracked in summer, sometimes covered by shallow water in winter that creates a mirror-like surface for photos.

Visiting the Alvord Desert Playa

The best times to go are late spring (May-June) and early fall (September-October) when temperatures are moderate (from 60-80°F ) and the playa is typically dry. If you visit in summer, plan carefully due to extreme heat.

The nearest services are in Fields, Oregon, a small town 23 miles south that has gas, basic supplies, and great milkshakes at Fields Station. Most people reach the playa via the gravel Alvord Desert Road off Highway 205, which regular cars can handle when dry.

Camp directly on the playa and sleep under incredibly dark skies where the Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon.