Road Trip!

 On the 4th, we boarded Daisy and headed east for a 6 day road trip to eastern Oregon.  Our first stop was Bend Oregon where we had reservations for the Hampton Inn right on the Deschutes River.  We expected it to be hot there, and it was. Ninety-three degrees, but just right for floating down the river on our tubes.  We floated for almost an hour before going down the rapids of the fish ladder.

As you can see, this is a very popular activity on a hot day in bend.  Photo from internet.

After the float, we walked along the river trail to find a dinner spot in Old Town.

We passed through the Old Mill shopping area where I took a little rest.  I have been shrinking in my old age.

We walked along the river where we had floated earlier.

After dinner, at 8:04 PM, there were still folks floating under the moonlight.

That's the full moon over the stacks of the old lumber mill.

The next day we headed east and drove through the remote Ochoco National Forest where several lightning fires were burning, some right next to the road.  We saw a converted airliner drop a load of orange retardant not too far in front of us.  It was a little spooky with all the smoke.

We finally made it to our destination of Joseph after about 7 hours of driving.  Joseph has many bronze sculptures around town that are made locally.  You can see how smoky it was on this day.  We stayed 3 nights in Joseph.  Joseph is at the base of the Wallowa Mountains and close to Wallowa Lake.  The entire Wallowa Mountain Range is a wilderness area and popular with backpackers.

The next day, we took a long hike going up into the mountains.

It was still smoky, but the scenery was rewarding.

Eagle-eyed Gail spotted this pika in boulders of a rock slide.

Wallowa Lake was naturally formed by glaciers up to 1,500 ft. thick pushing rock and earth down the mountain.  This earth appears like a big man-made dam, but is a natural moraine, one of the best remaining examples in the U.S.  The lake is 283 feet deep.

A rain squall came through the second afternoon, and helped clear out the smoke.

Near the lake is the headstone and monument for Old Chief Joseph.

At the far end of the lake is this building built in 1918.  It was a roller rink and dance hall.  It looks like it is past the point of being saved.

The next day we had clear skies.  This is from a little nature trail a short walk from our lodging.

We took the tramway 4,000 feet up to the top of Mt. Howard.  

The trees and vegetation at the top were stunted by the wind and winter storms.  The trees were mostly white bark pines and some lodgepole pines.

Under the bark of this dead pine were the tracks of bark beetles. I see a moose.

Looking to the east over Wallowa Lake.  This is a premier jumping off point for paragliders.   Some have ridden thermals from here crossing Hell's Canyon and landing in Idaho.

A golden-mantled ground squirrel.  

He was not timid after hearing me dig into my lunch bag.  We did not feed him.

It was a little disconcerting.  We could not keep him off us or our packs.  

We rode the tram back down and up again for fun, then had a little happy hour at the small restaurant at the top.  The next day we headed back to Bend via the Columbia River route, spent the night there, and drove home the next morning.  It was great to have a change of scenery and a little adventure.

🚡