2017.5.20. I signed up with the Nature Conservancy for Juniper Hill guided hike starting at 9am. It's a 4 hour drive, so I left Friday evening. 5/20, Saturday. Before the hike, I visited Rimrock Spring on the way (between Madras and Prineville).
Walked the 1.25 mile loop trail, hoping to see some animals in early morning. None, apparently I was not early enough. The sun was already cooking the earth. There're two platforms (one still under construction, or needing repair) to look out the marshy ponds created by the spring. A bench looking out to western sky, and a sign showing what mountains you are looking at (Gray Butte, Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, Three Sisters, Haystack Butte and Mt Jefferson. However Jefferson is behind trees. You'll see it better, when you pull out of the parking lot and into the highway. Many Desert Parsley, Milk-vetch (some tall ones and some low ones), Hood's Phlox, some larkspur.
About 20 of us showed up at the barn of Juniper Hill Preserve, including from the Portland office. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has an onsite manager: Brooke. Her husband's family used to own this or maybe nearby land. They have a nice white house, and dog and pony, even though pets are not allowed on all TNC trails. Very nice couple. Brook told me a side route to go back to the cars, which gained enough elevation to see Crooked River and eastern side of the preserve. I also saw more bitterroot, and some barestem lomatium. 
Our guide today is Stu, a former medical doctor in Bend. We were given a plant list, ordered by Latin names - thanks to Stu's medical training, but hard to use for layman like me. Stu also shared some human and geological history of the place, which I don't remember, but still nice to hear them at the time. We walked around the Painted Hill section of the property. I asked specifically to see Bitterroot, and boy what luck we have. So many. They are beautiful, much smaller than the one I saw in Hoyt Arboretum 3 weeks ago. Other new flowers for me are: Blepharipappus Scaber, Mountain Dandelion, Blue Flax (non-native), Golden Bee Plant (saw them in John Day's Painted Hills), and some fluffy seed of milkvetch.
Afterwards, I decided to check out Deep Spring Campground which Stu said has gigantic ponderosa pines and waterfront campsites. It's also on the way to Big Summit Prairie according to Google (from the SE side, via Paulina Valley Rd and NF4260). Paulina Valley road is gravel, but wide and in good shape. It went over a ridge and descent to nice flat farmlands. Once on the side of the basin, it is NF4260 in Ochoco National Forest. Not marked, but the only other choice is someone's farm gate. The hill side here is covered with blue camas. NF4260 is narrow and rutted. So terrible, that after carefully negotiating 3 bad sections, I turned around in front of a small creek crossing. Now going back to Paulina, asked a nice old fellow in front of the general store. He said I could try Beaver Creek Road further east, but he wasn't sure if the access road to the campgrounds is bad. Google suggests an extra 20 minutes compared with the route I was on. Apparently not many Google users come this way, and I cannot tell the road size by looking at the map. I gave up, and drove all the way back to Prineville and took hwy-26 and NF42, all paved. About 100 miles and 2 hours wasted.
Big Summit Prairie captured my mind when I first visited 3 years ago. Just as the name suggested, it's big, flat, and high (~4500') in the middle of Ochoco Mountains. The NFS Prineville Office emailed me a brochure on the flowers of Big Summit Prairie. I have to wait till July to see the rare Peck's Mariposa Lily. Due to the delay, I only drove the south route, all paved, about 10 miles. Making stops on the road, or in small pullouts. All around is private land. Turned back around the bend, where FS42 cross North Fork Crooked River. Turning south before the River is FS4240 (rough grave, may lead to the campground I was looking for), turning north would be 30 (good grave, probably fine to take to make a loop), continue east is still paved, but signed for narrow road. I saw Shooting Stars, a patch of Grass Widow (not a lot), Ballhead Waterleaf, a couple of Old Man's Whiskers and Hairy Clematis (new to me). Didn't see any Brown's Peony that I was hoping for.
Some blue Camas, a lot of Lomatium (all 3 kinds that I know), pink Allium, some Paintbrush, most abundant is lomatium (all 3 kins that I know) painting everything yellow. Lots of Mule's Ear (last time, they were yellow). 
Back to Independence Mine TH for Lookout Mt hike. The 0.8 mile road is rough, so I parked at Baneberry TH (seems flat and a good camping area even for a group among Ponderosa pines). I could have driven last ~0.2 miles. Hike in ~1.5 miles. The trail quickly turned into 100% covered by snow. Eventually I lost track of trail. No more footprints except for my own. 
Thanks to the GPS map I downloaded, I was able to continue in the correct direction. Near the top, it's more or less flat. Either snow or sticky mud. No flowers, yes, sagebrush. I didn't even see the shelter. Saw the sign of junction of 808 and 804. I continued to the right, saw two rows of fences, eventually reach the edge. Great view here. However, a bit too late. Once the slope starts to go down a bit, I turned around, and found a tree and setup my tent next to it, on the snow. At 6926', I'm on the top of Ochoco. A bit cold (especially compared to the mid 80Fs during the day), but nothing froze in the night. Good stars. The wind was an annoyance, making my tent very noisy.
5/21, Sunday. Woke up many times at night, and early in the morning. I waited until the sun was shining on my tent, before I got up. Dried a bit of my tent in the wind. Took this panorama shot, before heading down. Got lost again for a bit, sinking into the snow from time to time. Slow going.
Driving to Stein's Pillar viewpoint, 1.3 miles past the turnoff (FS500, with a well marked sign) to the trailhead. 
Actually there're some better views of the Pillar before the sanctioned viewpoint, which has a picnic table and bench, quite some paintbrush below on the slope. Not too many people come this way, so I just stopped by the side of the wide gravel road to take pictures. The farms between Mill Creek Rd and the hill where the pillars stand are verdant dotted with spring flowers. Quite pretty really. Now, back to FS500. About 2.1 miles. First half good, 2nd half a bit rocky. The TH has undefined parking spaces, and a few cars here and there. Soon after you get out of the seemingly disarray parking area, you are greeted with endless Arnica. 
I enjoyed very much the first 1/3-1/2 of the hike, with some open views to 3 Sisters, Broken Top and Bachelor. Small and large meadows now filled with flowers: Balsamroot, Paintbrush, Lomatium, Larkspur, Slender Phlox, Phacelia. Here I met a couple with full day packs and pen and notebook in hands. They are very nice and told me some names of the flowers and where I may find Lewisia in the area. 
The rest of the trail is in the woods, and going downhill. Only Oregon Grape (now with yellow flowers), Western Serviceberry (now covered with white flowers). Don't bother to go to the Stein's Pillar view at halfway point (not as good as the view from the road). The last part is downhill on stairs, to get to the base of Stein's Pillar. By the time you get there, the Pillar is too big to take all in on one photo. It is quite impressive. Overall, an easy hike with gentle grade and nice views, flowers are a bonus. The trail was just opened 2 weeks ago.
Following the tip from the plant-id couple, I went back to Rimrock Spring trail to look for bitterroot. Found only a few, but they are more pink. So quite pretty.
Driving back to Portland via Catherine Creek instead of over Government Camp by Mt Hood. Hwy-197, south of Maupin, is quite pretty. Now with lupines and lomatium blooming profusely. This is open country, so to your west, you can often see those snowy mountains in the Oregon Cascades.
My 4th trip to Catherine Creek this year. Now everything looks dry and hot. 88°F now. 
Poa Bulbosa is everywhere here too, the waving brown is covering all the colorful flowers. Most prominent flowers now are Blue Dick and Bachelor's Button, both blue, mixed with purple vetch and dotted occasionally golden marigold. I found some bitterroot here and there, not as abundant as in Juniper Hills Preserve, same white color.
Still over 1.5 hours to drive home. By the time I returned the car, it was already past 8pm. I drove over 600 miles. This concludes yet another flower trip this spring.
