This summer we met with close friends (and former college roommates) Meghan, Troy and kin in the Wallowas in Northeast Oregon. It was the culmination of years of planning and missed windows in what is truely a beautiful piece of Oregon. The idea has been to find a place somewhere between the two of us (they’re in Clarkston, WA) that would give us some time to actually catch up rather than our normal brief, chaotic encounters at weddings and such. Also, our broods have each grown enough that we wanted them to have a chance to play again longer than just the awkward first encounter.
The drive was long, and while challenging with two toddlers, was quite nice. Especially from La Grande to Joseph, which neither of us had been to before. The dry forest awoke a homesickness for Wyoming I’d long since forgotten, but it was tempered some since it was Chief Joseph Days, and the Rodeo was in town.
We rented a cabin on the south end of Wallowa Lake where we ate well, watched deer, played in an inflatable pool, and relaxed. From the cabin, we ventured out several times, including trips to Enterprise for dinner at the Terminal Gravity Brewery, Joseph for some ice cream and to see what the Chief Joseph Days were all about, several trips to the lake, and even a trip up the tram to the top of Mt. Howard.
The tram was a favorite for both Ella and I (Michelle, Meghan and the younger kids stayed back “because of the cost..”), and the nearly cloudless sky meant almost endless viewing from the various vantage points around the summit. The Royal Purple loop was probably Ella and Nate’s favorite because a couple gave Troy a baggie full of sunflower seeds, which the kids used to feed portly chipmunks from their hands. The views to the Eagle Cap wilderness, east across Hells Canyon, and north towards the lake, Joseph and Enterprise were stunning. I was pleased that the kids enjoyed the tram ride as much as Troy and I.
We also had a couple excursions to the lake, the best of which was on the Saturday before we had to leave. The weather was perfect, the crowds weren’t bad, and the lake water, though cool, were a perfect compliment to the 90 plus degrees of heat. We all had such a relaxed time, and I know this is expected, but we managed yet again to keep the kids from getting burned. That’s actually kind of impressive considering how often they were in their suits (or not in them).
The Wallowas and area are beautiful. Joseph and Enterprise have a charm their own that was, as I mentioned, a cause for some deeply buried homesickness for Cody. I’d heard the Eagle Cap Wilderness compared to the Enchantments in Central Washington, and while I didn’t ever get close enough to compare, I can see the comparison drawn to Leavenworth. The glacial moraine that frames Wallowa lake is really quite a trip because it’s steppe/desert that creeps in to forest in one direction and farmland in the other. Next time we go back, hopefully the girls will be ready to do some serious hiking.
Sadly, all good things come to an end and we had a 6 hour drive back to Portland. Why does the travel always try to unravel the relaxation?