July 19 – To the Wallowas, Oregon

Today we had a long 5 hour drive up to the north east corner of Oregon to explore the area around Wallowa Lake and the mountains surrounding it.

In RV mode the GPS wanted to take me directly across to I-84 and up but I decided to take the more scenic route. It was definitely more work, as there were more narrow, very twisty roads with steep climbs and descents, but it was worth it.

This post probably isn’t of much interest to anyone but me but I want to document the trip. 

Heading north from Burns we went through some pretty narrow canyons. For a Friday I was amazed at how little traffic we saw. On this section we saw about 5 cars coming at us and not a single one going our way caught us.

Then another sagebrush plain.

It was a steep descent into John Day.

Even a hairpin turn. I just shift down and let the transmission scream, always watching the transmission fluid temperature.

After a short time moving east, we headed north again into more canyons.

We had a couple of tall ridges to go up and back down before we got to a high plain.

 

More canyons just before we hit the interstate.

Boring!

Once again heading west, more narrow canyons.

Then a wide open plain heading towards the mountains.

We are at the Log House RV Park in Enterprise, Oregon.

I would have preferred to be closer to the lake and the town of Joseph but there is a rodeo and a festival going on this week so everything was booked when I called in February. This place only had one space left and I think he misheard me when I told him the RV length. When we got here I looked at the spot and wondered how we would fit. The owner said he wrote down that we were 32 feet long when we are almost 38 feet. The site is an end one and only meant for a smaller RV.

We only hang out a bit. The WIFI is good and we can see the TV satellites.  It is only 30 amp service which means we have to be more careful about using power. It also means only one AC on at a time and it is supposed to be very hot this week.

The lake and mountains are about a 20 minute drive south.

We are here for a week.