Until ill health interfered, we had planned to make some field trips in connection with the annual Ladd Marsh Bird Festival in May. One of its field trip destinations was “Rinehart Canyon”. Never knowing of such a place, and failing to find it on local maps, we asked around a bit. Janet, remembering from her birding days, generally placed it along the Grande Ronde River between Imbler and Elgin. Someone also said that it was in the vicinity of Mt. Harris. So Sunday morning, we set off driving up the Elgin Highway until we came upon a small sign for Rinehart Lane, just past the Summerville turnoff and with Harris to our right. While we never saw any formal Rinehart Canyon signage, we followed the rough gravel road that called itself Rinehart Lane along the river and up over the hills.
The river area was teeming with airborne critters and more, so we guessed we were in the right place.
Following Rinehart Lane for a few miles, we saw rugged, rocky hills and irrigated farm fields and livestock and plenty of dogs. And Kim watched for more birds with her binoculars.
And the river itself …
