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Trip Dates: May 5 – 7, 2024

Late last summer our friends Mike and Diane came back from a trip to Joseph, Oregon and the Wallowa Mountains in the far, far northeast corner of Oregon. Their stories of its beauty caused us to immediately plan a trip.

And here is a closeup of Wallowa County along with portions of The Wallowa Mountains and the Grand Ronde Valley. Click on the image to get a zoomed in view.

When Mary Ann, John, Karen and ourselves organized the trip last summer we figured that early May would be a great time to visit. As April faded into May, a line of storms was coming in from the Pacific. We had plenty of rain in the low lands and intermittent snow up in the Blues and much of the rest of the Cascades. To get to Joseph – which is named after Chief Joseph – from Portland requires a steep drive up the Blue Mountains to La Grande, then an hour drive through the Grand Ronde Valley. Pendleton – just south of the Columbia River – is 1,100 feet above sea level and La Grande is at 2,800 feet; so you have about a 1,700 foot elevation gain with most of that in just a few miles. How steep is it? Back in March 2005 I had surgery for prostate cancer; my surgeon said if I didn’t want surgery immediately I’d have to wait until he got back from his bicycle trip across the country. (I didn’t wait). When I asked him during a follow up appointment how his bike ride was he said the hardest part was going up the Blue Mountains.

All that to say we didn’t want to mess with a snow storm in the mountains. We decided if it was too snowy to make it up the mountain we’d stay home and reschedule. Thankfully when we left on May 5 light snow was forecast; nothing we couldn’t handle. Spoiler alert; we made it up and back with no problems.

Because it was still off-season we got a great deal on a big house just past the south end of Wallowa Lake.

Although we couldn’t see the lake we had a beautiful view; you can see from the sky that we had some stormy weather

That snow we missed on the drive up greeted us from time to time during our stay. Here is an afternoon on our deck.

There are three main attractions in and around Joseph: Wallowa Lake, the steepest gondola ride in the United State to the top of Mt Howard, and the Valley Bronze company. It was too cold to enjoy the lake, and the tram was closed since it was still off-season. But we did get a tour of Valley Bronze. When we first showed up for the tour they hurried us to the pouring room where a casting was taking place.

We then got a tour of the entire facility and learned about the process they use to create a lost wax bronze sculpture. Our tour guide was very earnest; although she has worked there a long time – touching up the wax models – this was her first time giving a tour. I left being impressed by the many steps of the process but a bit hazy on the details; so when I came home I searched for making bronze sculptures using the lost wax method and found this video from the Mr. Otter Art Studio. It probably isn’t exactly the way it is done at Valley Bronze, but you’ll get the idea.

This mostly completed sculpture of a hat amazed me. It looks like a well used hat you could put on your head and have it fit perfectly.

We saw other sculptures that – in my unschooled opinion – could have been easily made using another process to the same result. This beautiful sculpture of a fox is an example of that. One impressive part of this is how the whole sculpture is balanced and supported by that one leg.

But what do I know?

While walking around the area near Valley Bronze we stumbled across this panel truck. It reminds me of the truck my buddy Craig – The Chief – Eldridge fixed up in Caldwell, Idaho back in the early 70s.

Turning around I got a view of some of the mountains that create the Grand Ronde Valley.

After our tour we got a feel for just how quiet this town is in the off season. We went to The Outlaw for a delicious lunch. A few locals were hanging at the bar but we were just about the only tourists. If I remember correctly, the owner is relatively new, having sold her restaurant in Gresham (eastern suburb of Portland) for the quiet and beauty of the mountains. If you go to Joseph, give The Outlaw a try.

After lunch we walked around Joseph until we got too cold to hang much longer. The mountains are known as the Alps of Oregon. For good reason.

The statue near the quonset hut on the left is of Chief Joseph while the one on the right hand of the street is of a cowboy. I don’t know if the two statues were made at Valley Bronze; but I wouldn’t be surprised. A day or so later we went back down along Wallowa Lake to look around more. Joseph is on the northern edge of Wallowa Lake and our house is just beyond the southern edge. It may have been too cold to swim, but its beauty was worth the drive.

Mary Ann, Carla, and I walked – it was definitely not a hike – on a nature trail along the campground.

I find it interesting that in this two dimensional view it’s difficult to see if we are looking uphill or down (we are looking uphill). If I had gotten the phone/camera closer to the ground would be easer to determine.

This might be Mt Howard but I’m not sure.

On the way back to Portland we split up. Karen and John had to get back and Mary Ann’s grandson, Asa, was in the Washington state soccer playoffs and she wanted to get up to Tacoma to catch his next game. Carla and I stayed in Pendleton for the night and took in the Underground Pendleton tour. The highlights were the working and living spaces for the Chinese in the city. They couldn’t be seen in the city but people wanted their services – how typical of America – so had to take up residence Sorry I didn’t take any pictures. We also took the “31 Steps to Heaven” from a street level doorway to the brothel on the second floor – another example of people who worked without respect or even acknowledgement of the public. Stella Darby, the madame, ran the bordello from 1928 all the way up to 1967. She has been immortalized with a bronze statue in town.

The weather had turned for the better by the time we headed back to P-Town. Driving back along I84 Mount Hood showed up as a tiny white dot west of us. It got bigger and bigger as we made our way down the Columbia Gorge. We had a great time; next time we’ll try to time it to miss the snow and gain the gondola ride up Mt Howard.

We would definitely like to go again, but will plan better to be able to take advantage of the other activities.