Wallowa-Whitman National Forest----WOW!

We had read several blogs about this place in eastern Oregon and were very curious to see it.  Could there be a place that beautiful that we have missed over the years?  The quick answer is yes, it is awesomely beautiful with a unique mix of topography which makes it so cool, and it is largely undiscovered, even by Oregonians.  

The first thing we found is it is somewhat difficult to find a campground, they are few in the area, but the Wallowa River RV Park worked out nicely.  If you look at a map this huge area is found in the northeastern corner of the state, a 2.3 million acre parcel with over 600,000 acres designated as wilderness and was inhabited by the Nez Perce indians.  It is bordered on the east by Hell's Canyon, the deepest gorge in North America.  We have jet boated twice on the Snake River which is what dug out the canyon, but I can tell you the view from the top is much, much different from the view from the bottom!  We got a good idea of just how big that canyon is, unfortunately it is similar to the Grand Canyon as in your eyes and brain can't really do it justice as it is just so big it's hard to comprehend.  To get to the area we needed to work our way west into Oregon, go north and then finally east on 82 towards Wallowa, Enterprise, and Joseph.  You work your way up and over a winding road and descend into the prairie area.  It was rainy when we arrived and honestly we thought it looked nice but nothing to crow about (we couldn't see the backdrop of the mountains).  The area is as low as 875' in the Hell's Canyon area to as high as 9845' in the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area.

We waited out a rainy day and then hit the road.  We made a huge circle from our campground in Wallowa to the Buckhorn Overlook and then back down across the Zumwalt Prairie back to Enterprise and finally to our campground.  

The topography is phenomenal, prairie, wheat fields, smooth rolling hills covered with grass interspersed with rocky cliff faces, clumps of trees to whole hillsides of trees, to majestic snow covered rocky peaks in the distance and lots and lots of green.

Just leaving the campground

Along the way

Scenic

We stopped at the Red Hill Overlook for our picnic lunch and thought the view was pretty spectacular.

Lunch

We worked our way over to the Buckhorn Overlook and wow oh wow!  Amazing, it  gave us a look at how big Hell's Canyon really is, hard to comprehend.

Buckhorn Overlook

After the overlook we worked our way south towards the Zumwalt Prairie, a mostly intact 330,000 acre prairie that because of its elevation, 3500-5500' and remoteness has escaped the plow and is used mostly for ranching.  It is representative of the immense prairies that used to run from west of the Rockies all the way into Canada.  We knew it was big, but we were unprepared for its immenseness.  We drove miles and miles through it and could see beautiful undulating prairie as far as we could see in all directions.  

And it was great right up until we got the flat tire.  No cell coverage and we had seen one car the whole day.  The road is gravel and sharp stones, and fairly soft, and of course we are on a hill, not the best place to change a tire.  Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do:)  First I wanted to see why.  I should mention we carry an air compressor, and more recently a tire plug kit.  We have had a couple experiences lately that indicated it would be a VERY good idea to have a patch kit.  We hooked up the compressor to the tire and pumped away until we found the leak.  It looked like a cut about an inch and a half long but it felt like the air was coming out one small area like a puncture.  Oh, I should mention we are 30 miles from the nearest town, Enterprise, 20 more miles of gravel and 10 paved...  I figure what do we have to lose so I plug the hole, seems like it may have worked, so we wait for the compressor.  It's only a 12 volt small unit so it takes quite awhile for it to pump up our fairly big tires.  While we wait we get the spare out from under the truck just in case, and.....we see a car coming.  Believe it or not it is the Oregon State Patrol, they stop and see what they can do.  Asked if we wanted them to call AAA.  We said we may have fixed it temporarily and ask if there is a tire shop in Enterprise?  Yes.  The tire is now holding air and I say we gotta go.  They agree and head out in front of us on this 35 mph posted road at about 50 or so, we follow, and amazingly it seems to be holding air.  After about 7 miles they pull over, ask how we are doing, fine we say, and they say go ahead of us, so off we fly at 50-60 racing against hope that the tire will hold until the tire shop.  We joke that they let us in front so they could arrest for speeding 20-25 over the limit:)  We made it!!  But when they inspected the tire they said it was a miracle the plug held as the cut was about 2 inches long and the tire was trash.  Luckily they had an identical used tire that actually was better than our others which I bought and they mounted, then they asked why we were using such "flimsy" tires off road on their sharp rock roads?  We didn't really have an answer, we never had a problem before?   Turns out our OEM tires are only 4 ply and are fine for the road but pressed when off road on rocky terrain, which we knew but were lucky.  We have decided that when we get back to Oregon on our loop around, we will buy new tires all the way around that are a bit more stout but still retain a smooth ride on the highway, there's no sales tax in OR, that's why.

The next day we went on a super 3+ mile hike into the Eagle Cap Wilderness up Hurricane Creek.  It was a delightful hike, quiet, only a few people, through the pine forest on a pine needle carpeted path, breaking out now and then to wonderful views of mountains and waterfalls, and best of all fairly level.

The intrepid hiker negotiating the log bridge

Climbing along the creek

Quiet and peaceful

My wonderful and cute hiking companion:)

After our hike we went into the little town of Joseph, a really cute, nice town to have lunch.  We sat outside on a beautiful day and had a delicious lunch at Ember's Brew House.

Then we drove south to the Hell's Canyon Overlook, only 45 miles away.  One overlook we wanted to go to, the Hat Point Lookout where you can see the Snake River way at the bottom was closed for a week for logging.  But it was a nice and scenic ride over.  First we went by the Wallowa Lake near Joseph.

Wallowa Lake

This overlook was impressive and gave another view of how big and deep Hell's Canyon is.

So now we are in Lewiston, ID, right on the Snake River for a couple days after our incredibly enjoyable time in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.  It comes highly recommended!