Strength in numbers notwithstanding, I noted with dismay last week that there are now well more than 300 million of us who call the USA home.

That’s about 125 million more people than when I was born and, quite frankly, I’m not sure what to think. I like people as much as the next guy, but we seem to be compounding like interest.

Sometimes it’s good to take a break. Sometimes it’s good, no necessary, to ramble, get out on the open road and gaze with nothing but an unbroken sea of sagebrush and bunchgrass to block the view. To crank the road music – Merle Haggard, the Flying Burrito Bros. and the Jayhawks are a good place to begin – and sail out across the prairie with passing motorists so few and far between that you actually feel like waving. And do. To slow down and wander afoot, bust out across the steppe, heart soaring because there’s a chilly wind at your face and the dog out ahead is in a full body shimmy, giddy with the freedom.

The Oregon Outback Scenic Byway is a road tripper’s playground, a sometimes slinky, mostly straight-arrow stretch of blacktop that runs from La Pine southeast through Fort Rock, Silver Lake, Summer Lake, Paisley, Valley Falls and Lakeview before dipping down into California and Goose Lake, Alturas, Canby and Tulelake. It ends up back in Oregon near Klamath Falls.

My day trip last week took me as far as Paisley and back. It doesn’t take long to get in the traveling mode; any town past La Pine has forgotten that growth is the Western ideal, or never knew in the first place.

Fort Rock, just off state Highway 31, is the hub of historic homesteading activity in the region. It’s still a hub for far-flung hay and cattle ranches. There’s a little store, a few houses and a great little tavern called the Waterin’ Hole (every small town in the West worth its salt lick has a great little tavern).

Not far past the Fort Rock cutoff and before you reach Silver Lake, there’s a wildlife viewing area at Oatman Flat on the west side of the road. It’s a big field and the deer – dozens of them at any one time – like what’s growing in it.

The Summer Lake Wildlife Area is well worth a look. With the craggy Winter Ridge of the Fremont National Forest to the west and the Great Basin to the east, the 18,700-acre refuge is a natural wetlands, a waterfowl magnet that’s home to a moveable feast of Pacific Flyway birds. You can drive the gravel roads of the refuge and you’ll find plenty of wildlife and solitude. Bring your binoculars and camera; there’s a lot to see.

Next up is Summer Lake itself, a big, shallow inland lake that’s home to thousands of migratory birds and Summer Lake Inn with its tasteful hand-built cabins on the shore (541-943-3983). And there’s Summer Lake Hot Springs (541-943-3931), a funky destination with RV camping, geothermally heated cabins and a historic mineral springs bathhouse built in 1927 and once used by local cowboys to shave, bathe and do their laundry. Today, you can soak in the pool inside or stay in a guest house with a private tub.

Owner Duane Graham oversees the 143-acre property from a funky front office filled with gewgaws and collectibles (check out the George Wallace campaign poster).

From the hot springs, it’s a seven-mile drive in to Paisley, my turn-around point. The Chewaucan River flows through town and right on out. There’s a mercantile, a massage therapist office, a restaurant and a bar.

If you’re thirsty or simply in search of a little focused conversation, both are readily available at the Pioneer Saloon. Inside, 40-year Paisley resident June Christensen (she uses the nom de plume Mary June when penning contest-worthy poetry) told me that Paisley ”used to be a lively little town.” But the population’s down from 340 to about 240, Christensen said. She seems OK with it.

It feels about right to me, too.

I drove back to Bend wondering what 300 million looks like and yearning for a Cibelli’s Pizza. Or one of those Polish dogs from Costco.

If You Go

Getting there: From Bend, drive south on U.S. Highway 97. Just south of La Pine, turn left on state Highway 31, the Oregon Outback National Scenic Byway. Allow about five hours driving time from Bend to Paisley and back.

Contact: The Bureau of Land Management administers much of the land you’ll see on the drive; 541-947-2177.