Our Weekend Away, part II

Sacajawea, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer.

Day 2

Friday morning, I woke up in time to catch the sun rising over the Seven Devils. I went outside with the camera to catch the morning glow on the snow-capped peaks of the Wallowas as the sun rose in the sky. It was a beautiful morning, and quite warm, even at 6:00. We were told that it was the first time this season that breakfast was hosted outside.

Breakfast was amazing. Each breakfast starts out with fruit and yogurt with their own home-made granola. Erin had some toast from her bread. I was given crepes filled with a huckleberry sauce. Best crepes ever. The atmosphere helped. We were outside with a view of the mountains, the warm sun upon us, and the birds happily chirping all around.

Our plan was to visit the mountains. Our first stop was Hurricane Creek. Less than a mile in on a side trail, there is a rather large waterfall on Falls Creek. I was optimistic since there was no snow on the road or the trail. In fact, the snow line looked to be at least a thousand feet above us. However, when we got to the falls, we found the entire creek under feet of snow. But only the creek. It must have been avalanche build-up because the rest of the valley around was bone dry. In fact, the snow ended at the base of the falls. So we kept walking up the Hurricane Creek trail looking for a good view of Sacajawea.

Eventually, the sunshine and blue skies turned into dark clouds and threats of rain, so we turned back. As we got to the car, it started sprinkling on us, but not the heavy precipitation we were anticipating. We headed to Joseph and walked around town, finding a place for lunch. We drove along the lake and up to the Wallowa River trailhead where I wanted to hike to another waterfall, but as the weather never cleared, we decided not to. Instead we did some more scenic driving and scouted out a good sunset location. Unfortunately, the sunset was not too spectacular and we ended up calling it an early evening.

I finally got Erin into the Wallowa Mountains, and while we didn’t get very far, it was enough to show her why this place is special. I hope that she will muster up the energy to come all the way to the lakes district with me.