Pumice Butte Road Dispersed Campsite

A June heatwave pushed me to seek higher elevation and, after finding the campgrounds around Paulina and East lakes a little too crowded, I found this nice piece of isolation. It's up a generally decent forest road with a couple heavily rutted spots, but nothing that can't be managed with 2wd and choosing a careful line. The site itself is the southern slope of a mountain with a pit that appears to have been mined for pumice stone. The road seems to go around the pit, but the first left quickly descends into hills of loose stones that will trap any vehicle. The road on the far side is just fine though.

The terrain is entirely pumice stone, so not great for the paws of furry friends. The pit is a perfect backstop for shooting, as was evident from the shells and broken clay pigeons. In my stay only two other people drove through, both looking to use the area for shooting, but both were courteous enough to find another spot. The area is surrounded entirely by pine trees, really no other significant type of vegetation. The trees are relatively young and you can see long views of the valley below through them. Animal life consisted of birds, the occasional chipmunk, and lots and lots of flies.

There's no accurate local weather station but the temperatures were consistently 6 or 7 degrees lower than La Pine, and fairly windy. Cell reception was spotty. I got about two bars boosted of Verizon and nothing on T-Mobile.