Black Mountain

Well, at least it’s not another Black Butte. It is also a nice road walk of 5 or 6 miles RT. The distance depends on whether you start at the turn off of the good gravel road or whether you bounce your way up ~0.3 miles to the gate. Elevation gain is 1000 or 800 ft respectively.

Access is via Willow Creek Road out of Heppner and then a left turn onto county road 798, also called NF-5326, aka Shaw Grade Road. This is a gravel super highway, so any car. The next turn is on NF-030. This requires high clearance and recommends AWD. But after 0.3 miles it is time to walk anyway.