July & August Highlights 2020

July 2020

We enjoyed our trip over the WA Cascades...viewing Mt. Rainier...and "social distancing" at an RV Park in Randle, WA with friends Ron and Barb McClinton.

Additionally we had a guest outside our RV window at night.  What spectacular colors!

A visit to our Oregon farm by the Parsons family...Stephanie and Jon...was also a delightful summer event!

Here Ken is with the Parsons grandsons...Keaton, Carter, Spencer and son Jon.

Wallowa County---Aug. 2020 Visit

We drove our RV to our friend (and ex-renter) Joe's new property in the Lostine area.  He is quite an amazing man!

Joe gives Ken the overview of all the plans for Joe's new buildings!

Ken has for many years told me about his memorable trip to Dug Bar on the Snake River with a geologist friend many, many years ago.  So...we decided to venture out on Aug. 12th

This sign at the beginning of the trek...north of Imnaha...NEEDS to be heeded!  Truly this is an AWESOME TRIP BUT not one for the faint at heart in Joanne's opinion.  Let's just say it was 5 hrs from Lostine to the Snake River going out and about 4 hours coming back.  Often we were 1-3 mph and occasionally we got up to 10 mph as a MAX. speed on the oh so bumpy, rocky roads!

If you are into geology, the rocks/mountains/terrain will have you spell-bound.  These photos do NOT provide a hint of the majesty one sees!  Obviously this is millions of years of activity being viewed.

We did see some wildlife.  Several doe ran when they heard us coming.  This buck (standing up  in the deep grass just off the road) stayed put!  There may have been another doe and fawn he was guarding.

As we drove, the bottom of the canyons often  were NOT visible.  The layering and evidence of uplift, erosion, and evidence of "geologic action" was amazing.

5 hours after leaving Lostine we finally came to the Snake River that separates Idaho and Oregon.  I can understand why the usual route to this location is a boat trip from the north or from the south.  We saw one boat with many passengers and several with only a few people.  Going through the rapids must be...shall we say "exciting"!

Signage gives details of the historical nature of the area.  This was a historical  Indian Crossing for the Chief Joseph Band of the Nez Perce that gives insight into major treaty events in 1877.  Evidently in the entire area we had just traversed the Indians for thousands of years had migrated seasonally between plains and river valleys. 

Note the gravel bar  up the hill in the "V" on the far side (Idaho side) of Dug Bar.  Our geologist friend told Ken this was the gravel bar from the Missoula Floods when the Snake River was backed up and flowed south down the Snake River.  It now flows north into the Columbia River.  One can only imagine the depth of the water to put this gravel bar up so high on the east side.  These floods definitely changed Oregon and Washington's landscape.

The ruggedness of the landscape is evidenced at every turn in the road.

The roads were switch back after switch back and truly one often could look over the bank of the single lane road and NOT see the bottom of the canyon!  All day we saw 4 vehicles.

As one peers west as we were headed back south, there were at least 5 mountain ranges with deep valleys in-between each range.  Though Joanne was born in NE Oregon, she had NO idea that this existed within 100 miles or so of La Grande.

On Wed., Aug. 14, we drove to Wallowa Lake...this photo is from the north end.   This is a glacier formed lake and popular tourist sight in NE Oregon.  

What we had never done previously was take the Tram to the top of Mt. Howard on the southeast side of the Lake.  

There are multiple trails at the top the tram and a very nice restaurant.  Ken I just took one trail to view the Seven Devils to the North East. There were LOTS of families and young children who would pass us by :-)!

The natural wild flowers were gorgeous and the little ground squirrels were ALL over!  Though the signs recommend not feeding these little critters, I'm sure the staff never had to sweep under a table at the out-door-restaurant!

If you are ever in the area, we do recommend this trip for your bucket list!  It is certainly lots higher of a mountain than the Tram we took in Canada.

We ended up our day by driving home to the La Grande farm.  Our friend Joe came a bit later with his truck and trailer to load a tractor and some equipment. Joe and Ken anticipate doing some work on Joe's adventure here in Lostine this weekend.

Finally on our way back last night, we were greeted in Lostine by a mama and her twins!  Now how many places in the USA are you greeted by this view in the middle of town at 8 pm?