Lakeview OHV Area

The Lakeview OHV riding area encompasses the BLM-managed open desert and sage steppe terrain surrounding the town of Lakeview in Lake County, Oregon: the most remote corner of the state, a high-desert basin at 4,800 feet elevation in the Great Basin physiographic province where Oregon grades into the Nevada basin-and-range landscape. Lake County is Oregon's largest county by area and among its least populated, and the BLM manages over 3 million acres of federal land in the district surrounding Lakeview, terrain where OHV riders have vast open access on a landscape completely different from the wet forest riding of western Oregon. The riding terrain near Lakeview spans the full Great Basin landscape spectrum: open sagebrush and bunchgrass steppe on the valley floors and alluvial fans, juniper-covered volcanic rimrock on the mesa edges, and the alkali lake bed playas of the Warner Valley basin. Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge and the Warner Wetlands form the broader ecological context; OHV riding is concentrated on the BLM open land outside the refuge boundary on the western and southern margins of the Warner Valley. ATVs, UTVs, dirt bikes, and 4x4 trucks are all permitted on open BLM land; some routes require staying on designated two-track to protect the Lahontan cutthroat trout streams draining toward the Warner Lakes. Dispersed camping is available throughout the BLM district under 14-night limits. The Lakeview District BLM office (541-947-2177) manages current route designations and seasonal closure information for the eastern Oregon OHV areas.