Environment

Dropping over a mile in elevation, just below the Steens Mountain is the Alvord Desert. It is a 12 by 7 mile dry lake bed created over 24 million years ago when the Steens Mountain lifted. 

The Alvord Desert is dry and gets an average of 7 inches of rain in a year although during the wetter years small lakes will form in the playa. The lakes are saline due to deposits left from the old lake.

At the edge of the desert next to the mountains there are deposits of sediment from Steens Mountain. These wedge-shaped aprons called alluvial fans which are formed as streams carry sediments from the mountain and drop them at the margin of the Alvord Desert. Vegetation grows in this area because the sediments are a more favorable soil than the lakebed.