Isn’t Imnaha fun to say. Whisper or shout. It works either way.
We decided on a trail along the river and weren’t disappointed. There were some rather huge boletes at the beginning of the trail, and flowers and gorgeous rock all along the way.
It got hot and there wasn’t much shade, but we had water and good hats.
I wish I’d picked those boletes for dinner, but I wasn’t quite brave enough.
This trip had a staged start. I spent the week prior at a conference in Spokane while Bill worked from our rented digs. We’d parked Brave Horatio at my sister’s house in Mead and enjoyed visiting them from Friday evening to Sunday morning. (Hi Bridget and Dan!) We also had dinner with my nephew and his family on Wednesday. Hazel is 10-months old and quite a hoot.
We left Spokane headed toward the Wallowa Mountains. Our route took us through three states by way of Lewiston, Clarkston, and Enterprise. There were vast fields of wildflowers all along our route. The rolling hills of the Paulouse was a tapestry of all shades of green interrupted by punches of chartreuse and yellow fields of canola (rapeseed). Wildflowers edged the road and fields. Beautiful.
We were surrounded by a swarm of bees when we stopped for gas in Lewiston. I love bee swarms. It’s invigorating to be in the middle of the swirl and the BUZZ. Swarms are loud. They quickly crossed the gas station and side road headed for some trees. Hope the found a great new home.
We didn’t take the Spiral Highway into Lewiston Idaho, though I kind of wish we had. Even without the spiral, the drop into Lewiston was spectacular as was the long climb up to the plateau out of Clarkston. Wildflower everywhere. That high plateau out of Lewiston is like being on top of the world.
Winding back down to the Grand Ronde from the plateau was spectacular too. We stopped to look at the roadside flowers and grasses and the river. Beautiful!
Elderberry, mock orange, penstemons, wild geranium, lupine, vetch, blanket flower, brown-eyed susan, wild rose, green false hellebore, mouse-on-a-stick, asters, and more and more.
We passed a café/tavern with a dozen motorcycles out front and headed back up to the flower-covered top of the world.
On the advice of Bill and Heather, we stopped at Terminal Gravity in Enterprise. So cute, so full. Such nice staff running so fast. Nice nachos!
We spread our maps on the table and narrowed down our campsite search area. Earlier we’d put stars on two areas of the map. There were several possible campgrounds along Lostine River Road west of Wallowa Lake and another bunch on forest service roads off Wallowa Mountain Loop southeast of the lake. There wasn’t a timely way to check out both. We opted for Wallowa Mountain Loop and ended up in maybe our best campsite ever.
Campsite 12 in Indian Crossing NFS campground off forest service road 3960 is spectacular. Indian Crossing is at the end of road 3960. Cross the bridge, take the first left, and follow it all the way to the loop at the end. Site 12 is on the river side of that little loop. A huge campsite right on the Imnaha River with forest, a small meadow, and a huge rock accessible from the other side of the loop. We placed Brave Horatio right up in there and watched the evening darken from our rocking chairs by the river.
July 4 began with a light drizzle. Seemed like a good day to find Cornucopia.
Granola and coffee made a decent stand-up breakfast and we took our second cups up to the top of the rock across the road from our campsite. More wildflowers all the way up. A nice clump of Queens Cup (Clintonia Unifora) nestled at the base of a tree at the bottom and so many other species accompanied us to the top.
The grass in our campsite meadow is perfect. It’s about 14 inches tall and lazes over to make dark green waves. It’s what I want but haven’t yet achieved in my backyard at home.
Heading back to Wallowa Mountain Road toward Halfway. We detoured through Hidden and Cloverdale campgrounds just to check them out. They’re both nice, but I like our very perfect spot better.
The Hells Canyon Overlook made a great side trip. We pulled out at a wide place toward the start of the road for some fantastic foggy views. The overlook itself was socked in with fog, but again, all those wildflowers. So many and so many different species. While we were enjoying the flowers the fog lifted a bit and we got great moody views, though not to the bottom. That’s OK, we’ll stop on our way back to camp if the weather clears up.
We saw mule deer and the wildflowers were like washes of purple up the hillside.
Heading into halfway, the flowers thinned out. An elderberry here and there, otherwise grassy mountains studded with sage, chaparral and pine. Interesting how abruptly the landscape changes.
We came down around a corner and face to face with the mountains. Down here there are fields of wild flax, one of my favorites. Pine Creek is a pretty little stream. I’ll bet there are some good trout in there.
Pine Valley coming into Halfway is gorgeous and Halfway is a cute little town.
We bought picnic supplies at the Old Pine Market which had a surprisingly nice selection of gluten-free products. (Bill and I both have Celiac disease, so this was really great.)
Eleven miles from Halfway up the Halfway-Cornucopia Highway (OR Hwy 413) is the abandoned mining town of Cornucopia. The pavement ends at mile six and it starts to smell heavenly—that great pine forest smell. Wildflowers are sparser than other places on our trip, but there are still quite a few. The wild geranium and pale blue penstemon add a nice pop of subtle color and the brown-eyed Susans shout a bit more vibrantly.
Big piles of mine tailings line the creek on the way up. Toward the beginning of the road you can see an active mining operation. I’m sure there are several—lots of private property signs on the creek side of the road. (the other side is national forest).
SURPRISE! There’s lunch available in (or off to the side of) the ghost town of Cornucopia—well not on July 4—but usually. Also dinner by reservation, lodging, outfitting, and a guide service.
OK, Cornucopia is seriously weird. A mix of abandoned buildings, new buildings, and buildings that look like they were abandoned until people started patching them together and propping them up. There’s a main prosperous looking house flying an in-your-face flag. There’s a free wifi hotspot. There’s a story here and I’d like to know it — or maybe make it up.
Past what might have been the last structure, we set up our picnic on a handy rock. Pretty delicious!
We walked a half-mile or so farther down the road without reaching the creek or seeing any sign of old mining activity. Checked in at the hotspot (and maybe spilled all our secrets to the Cornucopites) and headed back up Wallowa Mountain Loop.
Hells Canyon Overlook was clear — pretty spectacular. I was surprised that we couldn’t see the river. Lots of spectacular rock and mountains and rock.
Relaxed and replete with the joy of the Fair and the stillness of the mountains.
