The Big Indian Gorge is one of several gorges created as the ice cap that covered the Steens Mountains receded.
This shot was taken from the loop road at approximately 9500 feet.
The entrance to the gorge is via a trail that starts at the South Steens Campground.
Hike Length (if you go all the way to the headwall): 8 miles
Elevation Gain: 1800 feet.
The trail requires three river crossings. Our trip was in Mid July of a very heavy snow year and the crossings were straightforward. The Big Indian flows into the Donner und Blitzen and that river has an automated river level gauge which can be used to get a relative notion about the flow in the Big Indian. The flow rate when we hiked was 200 cfs. Snow melt is a significant variable, I measured the afternoon versus morning flows at our camp and it varied four inches. Earlier in the year when more snow exists I am sure that this variation is much more significant and could present challenges.
From South Steens Campground we hiked up 5 miles. Once into the gorge the trail meanders along besides the river crossing through meadows and groves of trees. Sections of the trail have heavy water runoff erosion. Another fixture in the gorge is the mountain sage brush which often encroaches on the trail and since is it very stiff and prickly it is advised to wear long legged pants
The flowers are very special and with time I found myself seeing flowers that I had previously missed.
The Steens Mountain Thistle pictured below is unique this area.
This area is a bit unique in that there are no pine or fir trees. Juniper, aspen and cottonwoods are the dominate trees. We also saw Mahogany bushes that were really more of a tree.
Our camp was in a grove of Cottonwood Trees and was right on the creek. 
The Big Indian provided a nice rushing backdrop.
After setting camp we hiked up to the Headwall, an additional 3 miles.
Snow melt and springs create beautiful waterfalls.
Near the end of the gorge are a set of aspen groves. If you look closely you can find carvings made by the sheepherders that grazed their sheep in the gorge.
There were a couple of other nice camp sites higher in the gorge. The log from people camped at the higher camp said that it was very buggy.
As evening fell the gorge took on a reddish glow.
