If you’re looking for a sno-park with easy access from decently maintained roads and more solitude than anything on the Cascades Lakes Highway, wait for a good snowfall in the Ochocos and then make your way to Bandit Springs.

Located between Prineville and Mitchell directly off of Highway 26, this sno-park parking lot will fit just over a dozen cars, and you don’t need a four-wheel drive or high-clearance vehicle to reach it.

Bandit Springs Sno-park provides access to the most diverse network of cross-country ski and snowshoe trails on the Ochoco National Forest. With trail ratings ranging from easy to most difficult, skiers of any skill level will have options here. The grade of the trails is never steep, making for straightforward and enjoyable cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. You can combine the park’s various small loops to embark on any length of outing you might desire.

The Ponderosa Loop Trail delivers on the promise of its name, as it winds through a mature forest with beautiful ponderosa pines punctuating every twist and bend in the route.

Ponderosas are well-known for their resistance to low-intensity fires. These stately trees have served a variety of practical, medicinal, and ceremonial functions for Indigenous people, who consumed the seeds and sweet inner bark and boiled the needles into a solution to treat coughs and fevers, among other uses. The authors at the Institute for American Indian Studies specifically note that the Paiute used a poultice of dried chewed pitch to treat boils. People have also used Ponderosa needles and roots for baskets, cut the limbs and branches for firewood and building material, and carved the trunks into canoes.

Home to many wildlife species

In its 850,000-plus acres, the Ochoco National Forest holds a diverse array of ecosystems, including sagebrush plateaus, groves of old-growth trees, and seasonal and perennial streams. As an environmental watchdog, a core tenet of Central Oregon LandWatch’s forest work is ensuring that the public lands in our region are managed with an eye to the future and a focus on conservation. LandWatch keeps a close eye on projects proposed in the Ochoco National Forest and we advocate for preserving our wild lands for their broad range of values. Today, the large trees in the Mill Creek Wilderness, near Bandit Springs, remain standing thanks to LandWatch’s advocacy and sound decisions made by the U.S. Forest Service.

The various rich ecosystems of the Ochocos — the westernmost part of the Blue Mountains — provide safe habitat for at least 375 different species of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. Elk and mule deer browse in its meadows, while mountain lions and black bears amble amidst the rocky ridgelines and redband trout and steelhead spawn in the forest’s freshwater creeks.

Elk and deer are now in their winter range — lower elevations with minimal snow cover where they can find vegetation for forage, hiding cover, and protection from the weather. (To avoid disrupting these species when they are vulnerable to expending too much energy, it’s imperative to observe the winter range closures that start on Dec. 1 each year and prohibit motor vehicle use in various areas within the forest.) You won’t encounter any black bears as they are hibernating, hidden deep in their dens. And the mountain lions are far too secretive to be seen, although seemingly every other feature in this area is named for them: Cougar Creek, Cougar Rock, Cougar Butte, Wildcat Trail.

What you will encounter in the sno-park in winter are the signs of animals that are still moving through the area, with coyotes and rabbits leaving their scat on the trail and their tracks visible in freshly fallen snow. And, with luck and patience, you could see some of the many bird species that thrive in the Ochocos and are present year-round in this area, including nuthatches, chickadees, dark-eyed juncos, northern flickers, red-tailed hawks, pileated woodpeckers and goshawks.

Good year-round

When venturing out in winter, it’s wisest to have a plan to be back to your vehicle well before the daylight begins to fade. That is easy to achieve on the short loops in this area; before long, you’ll be looping back to your starting point.

A great choice for a quiet winter day with fresh snow, the trails at Bandit Springs Sno-park can also be enjoyed in different ways throughout the year. In the spring, these short trails would offer a perfect leg stretch on the way to or from Sutton Mountain and the Painted Hills. In May or June, you could stop here to hunt for morel mushrooms. Later in the summer, you could get in a quick mountain bike ride en route to a campsite deeper into the Ochocos.

Getting there: From Prineville, head east for approximately 27 miles on Highway 26. This site is located on the left side of the road one mile west of the Ochoco Divide Summit, about a half mile north of Marks Creek Sled Hill and about three-quarters of a mile south of Ochoco Divide Sno-Park.

All sno-parks on the Ochoco National Forest require a valid Oregon State Sno-Park Permit from Nov. 15 through April 30.