Southeastern Oregon's 9,733-foot Steens Mountain trends 50 miles north-northeast, formed by a wrinkle in the tectonic forces that have shaped much of the western United States's Basin and Range country. In June 1831, Hudson Bay Company fur trader John Work described this mountain as "covered with snow," leading to its first name, the Snow Mountains. For most of the year, the crest's treeless subalpine tundra is covered in deep snow and, during brief summers, is carpeted with wildflowers.

The mountain is a thick block of basalt that, from west to east, gently tilts up to its peak, with a steeply pitched east-facing scarp, descending over a mile to the desert floor. Still in the making, the mountain continues to uplift along its eastern edge, shaken by periodic earthquakes. I made this photograph atop the steep headwall near its peak, beneath which glaciers and melting runoff have eroded the steep terrain into a convoluted topography of sharp ridges and spectacular ravines. Streams originating in cirque basins just below this rim feed Willow and Cottonwood creeks.

From the top of the ridge on the left, a visitor leans into a wind, fueled by rising air converging above the slope's ridge. To the east, in the mountain's rain shadow, lies the Alvord Desert. Small working ranches operate along the mountain's base, where the Tsisi-adi band of Paiute once lived. Today, this ancient lake's flat, dry bed is populated by campers, vehicles attempting to score land speed records, and dust devils.

Location research and commentary by James Baker.