WALLOWA
We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft earth of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten, but new beliefs are born. The faith of the villages is dust now... but it will grow again... like the trees.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
The Wallowa Country, Fall. For everything there is a season...
Morning arrives in the valley of the Powder River, the southwest Wallowa country. The sunrise coming through the Powder River gap between the main mass of the Wallowa Mountains and the Big Lookout outliers to the south. Both the day and the southern Wallowa await...
the day awakens
An overcast but warming sky awaits as the traverse of the lower Powder River begins. The landscape gradually but continuously grows more rugged as the Snake River is approached. The Powder, as in the time of the Oregon Trail, remains a lifeline is an otherwise arid landscape.
powder river
In the Eagle Country.
The southern face of the Wallowa. Eagle Creek is upstream at this point, the Eagle Cap Wilderness cloud-capped. Pine Creek and Halfway, still downstream. await.
eagle country
The upper end of the Pine Creek Valley and the town of Halfway, Oregon. A clearing sky over the southeastern Wallowa. Why Halfway, you ask? The town is located halfway between Pine and Cornucopia and in early years served as the regional post office. As a bonus: at 44 degrees and 52 minutes of north latitude, it's essentially halfway between the Equator and North Pole.
Pine creek valley
The Powder rises far to the west in the high coniferous forests of the Blue Mountains. Approaching the Snake it runs through a completely different landscape. The hills are rounded, the colors muted; here softened and textured by the late afternoon sun.
the lower powder - 1
A natural dam across the Powder, the result of a landslide in 1984. The river has re-established a course around the left side, but a lake still remains. I was not particularly quiet in my approach but enjoyed a beneficial wind direction as I crested the dam and surprised the ducks and solitary heron at the near end of the lake.
the lower powder -2
Wallowa Lake at the northeastern end of the mountains. Waiting. The sun's light has yet to arrive on the peaks, but is illuminating the interesting cloud patterns above. The temperature is right at freezing, the north wind fortunately at my back. Waiting...
predawn on wallowa lake
The Wallowa River starts at the confluence of the east and west forks high in the southern part of the mountain range, it then flows north into Wallowa lake. I'm standing just south of the lake, taking in the morning light and last night's dusting of snow on the peaks.
wallowa river
In the Land of the Nez Perce
There are many lovely streams flowing into the Snake in this common corner of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The Wallowa has long been a favorite of the Nez Perce. Wallowa: The Winding Water. The fishing waters just above the lake.
winding water
Far northeastern and southwestern Oregon are, in important respects, geological and ecological bookends. Both are, in similar ways, a nexus for influences from the Northern Rockies, Great Basin, Sierra Nevada, and the Temperate Northwest Rain Forest. All types of wonders await...
nexus
The light in the sky has come alive with the sun on the crest. It's light enough now to distinguish the top of the western lateral moraine (tan-yellow strip about half way down the mountain). The high crest a product of glacial erosion, the moraine of glacial deposition.
sunrise on the crest
I've been here for over an hour. Waiting. Watching the day come to life. The temperature has dropped a little with the dawn, in part due to the north wind also coming to life. I'm feeling it now in my gloved fingers and my toes. There is no place I would rather be in this moment...