Jim Witty

The Bulletin

Cove Palisades is at its best when the weather is at its worst.

It’s too cold to ski, too warm to ice skate and the fish are taking the winter off.

Which means the one million yearly visitors are off snow skiing or tuning their outboards or hybernating. It’s so quiet you can listen to what the place has to say.

Lake Billy Chinook is the meeting place of three rivers – the Metolius, the Crooked and the Deschutes. It’s long been a confluence; it’s only been since 1964 that this focal point has been a lake. That year, Portland General Electric finished building Round Butte Dam, which impounded the waters of the three rivers, and dedicated the lake to Billy Chinook, a Wasco scout from Warm Springs who traveled with explorer John Fremont.

Driving in to Cove Palisades State Park from Culver you drop abruptly from the plateau and are confronted with serious canyon country and the Deschutes Arm of Lake Billy Chinook. The road winds back on itself and crosses the Deschutes about a mile upstream.

After climbing back up to a pass between the Deschutes and Crooked rivers, I parked at a pullout on the right side of the road.

Looming there is The Island, a 200-acre chunk of basalt that contains one of the last ungrazed, unspoiled grassland, juniper and shrub plant communities in the West. As such, it’s off limits to hikers except during periodic special tours offered by Oregon State Parks (546-3412).

Walk across the road and you’re standing in front of a big hunk of rock with an abstract design chipped into its face. The Crooked River Petroglyph was discovered about a mile upstream from where you stand alongside a set of rapids. According to an informational sign at the spot, similar drawings were found on the Columbia River near The Dalles. The age and meaning of the Crooked River Petroglyph are unknown, but prehistoric people lived in these canyons for thousands of years.

Less than a mile from the petroglyph is the Deschutes Campground, deserted for the winter. This is where the nine-mile Tam-a-lau Trail begins. The popular path (virtually untrammeled in winter) winds up through the canyon’s lava layers and tops out on The Peninsula between the Crooked and Deschutes. The terrain and landscape here offers a hiking experience similar to The Island.

Not far upstream from the campground and trailhead there’s another bridge, this one a narrow one-lane affair spanning the Deschutes. Across the bridge, the road switchbacks up to the plateau to the west of the Deschutes. Careful here, the road is narrow, the cliffs are steep and there are no guard rails.

From here, you can continue on to Sisters, 25 miles out a dirt road, or to the Metolius Arm of the lake. At the top of the grade is the Lake Chinook Village Store, which serves the occasional passing motorist and the residents of Three Rivers of Eyerly Fire fame.

I stopped at the little store for a Sierra Mist and some directions from proprietor Julie Dunlap. It’s one of those stuffed-coyote-and-bobcat kind of places and Dunlap is country-style friendly. It’s a good place to take a break and listen to the story behind the photo of the three cougar kittens in the middle of the road.

I opted against the drive back via Sisters (‘There’s mud out there that’ll sink your truck’), instead retracing my steps through Cove Palisades. It was on the return journey that I met Jim Martin, who watches over the Cove Palisades Marina on the Crooked River Arm. He gave me a tour of the marina – the store, the rental station, the extensive boat slips – now empty and quiet save for the lake lapping against the docks.

‘This is the best time of the year,’ said Martin. It’s peaceful and quiet. All you’ve got is the animals. It’s a beautiful place.’

Jim Witty can be reached at 541-617-7828 or jwitty@bendbulletin.com.