We Drove Into Eastern Oregon's Wildest Desert (Then Came Our Biggest Field Repair Yet)

We’ve lived in Oregon for a while, but never explored most of the state. But this stretch of high desert, from Hart Mountain down to the Alvord, ended up being one of the most surprising places we’ve taken the EarthRoamer. Of course, we didn’t expect to kick things off with a mini-crisis five minutes after arriving

Hart Mountain & The Sink That Fell Out

We pulled into Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge just before dark, hunting for a spot to camp. The road in was actually fun—empty, winding, and a bit steep.

Then Elissa was washing something in the sink and the whole basin just... dropped.

Not all the way — she caught it — but the glue that bonds the sink to the EarthRoamer cabinetry had simply given up after nine years of vibration. This is apparently a known issue on LTS models from this era. Other owners have made custom mounts. We'd known about it. We just hadn't prioritized it.

With the sink propped up on a makeshift stack of bags and boxes, we had one usable but fragile kitchen. The plan: find the nearest hardware store and figure it out.

Hot Springs First, Hardware Second

We weren't going to leave Hart Mountain without hitting the hot springs. The ones up here aren't developed and it feels special to dip with no concrete, no fees, and no crowds. Just natural pools worn into the ground, steaming in the morning air. We slipped into one that had the whole place to ourselves.

From Hart Mountain, the nearest hardware store was Ace Hardware in Lakeview, OR — an hour and a half away. We grabbed L-brackets, structural adhesive, and some bolts, then plotted a route back across Nevada to rejoin our path into the Alvord.

Borax Lake: Don't Touch It

En route to the Alvord, we made a detour to Borax Lake — a geothermal pool in the middle of nowhere that we genuinely didn't know existed before this trip. The sign at the gate says it all: Arsenic levels 25 times the critical limit for drinking water.

The lake itself is enormous — not the tiny bubbling pool we expected — and potentially 180°F. You can hold your hand a foot above the surface and feel the heat. No one else was there. No fences, really. Just a weathered warning sign and a cattle gate that gave Elissa a harder time than she'd like to admit.

The Alvord Desert & The Repair

We reached the Alvord Desert late afternoon. It looks like the bottom of an ancient lake — because it is. A flat, cracked playa ringed by the Steens Mountains, still snow-capped in May. The Steens road doesn't open until June, so that'll be a return trip.

We parked at the edge of the playa and finally tackled the sink.

Jacob dropped the basin, cleaned the old adhesive off the cabinet frame, and drilled four L-brackets directly into the EarthRoamer cabinetry — the first permanent modification we've made to this vehicle. When combined with a structural adhesive, the sink now has mechanical retention rather than relying on decade-old glue. Cure time: 24 hours. We packed it in tight and left it overnight.

For other EarthRoamer LTS owners dealing with this same issue: L-brackets from any hardware store, structural construction adhesive (not super glue), and a few hours of work. It's a permanent fix.

Mickey Hot Springs: The Serious One

We weren't done. Past 7pm, chips and hummus for dinner, and one more stop on the list: Mickey Hot Springs.

The sign here doesn't mess around. 200°F. Burns on contact. Death has occurred. The ground may collapse.

We put on hiking boots and went anyway.

Mickey is a completely different experience from the natural pools at Hart Mountain. There's no getting in. The pools vent steam through cracks in the earth — you can hear the pressure moving underground, a sound Elissa described as "a kettle right before it screams." In some spots, the ground has already collapsed inward from the pressure below. You're standing on what feels like normal terrain while boiling water moves underneath it.

With the Steens glowing in the last light of the sunset behind us, it was genuinely one of the coolest things we've ever seen.

What Eastern Oregon Actually Is

We had a mental image of Eastern Oregon as a long, flat drive-through on the way to somewhere else. That image was completely wrong. Between the free hot springs, the arsenic lakes, the high-desert playa, and the geothermal fields, this region is strange and remote and worth visiting.

Watch the full video below!