BEHIND ITS WEATHER FRONT, the Pacific Northwest is hiding cataclysmic pop-up mountains, brooding basaltic gorges, and juniper-scented bone-dry air, all best experienced on a high-desert circle through eastern Oregon.

Start in Bend, on the eastern slope of the Cascades, then head east on Route 20 to Burns, the heart of once-vast cattle kingdoms. From there, Route 205 south leads you through Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where trout-rich rivers flow off Steens Mountain into fertile marshes that draw trumpeter swans and sandhill cranes. There are tiny hotels in Diamond (population 5) and Frenchglen (population 9).

Retrace your path and then go north on Route 3 95, to John Day. Turn east toward Baker City, stopping off at Whitney and other gold-rush ghost towns on the way. At Baker City, you can take Route 86 over to Hells Canyon, at Oxbow Dam, where you can explore - on a jet boat or a llama - the nation's deepest gorge, slicing 7,000 feet down through 10 million years'worth of volcanic lava.

Better: Head north to La Grande and drive Route 82 to Nez Perce chief Joseph's fabled homeland of the 10,000-foot, scoured-granite Wallowa Mountains. After traveling the only road heading east to Imnaha, work your way back west through Pendleton on Route 84 north and over to the Columbia River, where the highway traverses a primeval chasm. In the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, look for old Route 30, a 22-mile stretch of the original highway that twists close to bridal-veil water- falls and recalls the romance of motoring.