Wonderful Wallowa

Yesterday I visited the Wallowa Valley for the first time in 36 years. Why it took so long for me to return I have no idea. It's breathtakingly beautiful! The local C of C name for the region is the Switzerland of America, and it's not hard to see why. Towering mountains, crisp blue skies, tidy farms...it's gorgeous countryside. Wallowa county, however, is being discovered. In that time span, the county's population has roughly doubled...to about 7 thousand. Yes, there's still a lot of open space here. It's isolated. It is not on the way to anywhere...travelers reach the valley intent on coming here, not on passing through. There are no interstates and few chain stores...though there is a Safeway in Enterprise, the county seat.

Mountains glisten; rivers sparkle in the sunlight. After Labor Day, there are very few tourists here. There are many more resorts than in 1972, but right now they are uncrowded. Tranquillity reigns.

This is Wallowa Lake. It sits in a glacial basin flanked by terminal moraines on both sides. Tahoe is superb; several lakes in British Columbia follow suit. But Wallowa Lake holds its own. There is a state park with a campground on the southern end of the lake. I stayed there for three days in 1972 with my college dormmate Dick, who I just visited. We hiked into the wilderness, bushwhacked on dirt roads, and generally had a fine adventure. You can still easily do that here.

There is one bad vibe here. Before the coming of the white man, this paradise was inhabited,

loved, and cherished by the Nez Perce Indians. They were peaceable people who helped guide and supply Lewis and Clark on their expedition in the first years of the nineteenth century. But by the middle of that century, whites in larger numbers discovered the valley, and the familiar story ensued...it wasn't long before the Nez Perce were swindled and lost their land. Blow up the picture and read the sign for details. It was a tragedy.