Hey friends, welcome back to Grand Adventure! I'm
your host Marc Guido, and we are in the beautiful Wallowa Mountains right outside of Joseph, Oregon.
This episode is supposed to be about the Wallowa Mountains but instead I think it's going to be
more about the wildfire smoke. So stay tuned! This episode of Grand Adventure is sponsored by
The Dyrt PRO! Find the campsite that's right for you from over 44,000 listings, either on the
web or on their number one-ranked mobile app. Try all of the PRO features free for 90 days
by using the promo code GrandAdventure90! When traveling by RV, don't always trust your
GPS! Heading to Joseph, Oregon from our last stop in McCall, Idaho, Google Maps estimated our
trip would take nearly four and a half hours to go only 165 miles. Although that seemed
improbable, we quickly found out why, for the shortest distance to Joseph required
following the shoreline of Brownlee Reservoir on the Snake River before traversing the
Wallowa Mountains, which involved over 60 miles of roadway only a lane and a half wide,
zero shoulder, 15 mile-per-hour hairpin turns, and no fewer than three mountain crossings.
To be sure it was slow going! When traveling to Joseph from the south or east, don't
hesitate to take the long way around instead. The Wallowa Mountains rise abruptly from the
relatively flat plains of eastern Oregon, which are an arid region of the state. Now
normally you'd have a beautiful view with the mountains right behind me; unfortunately,
with this wildfire smoke that moved in (today is actually a little clearer, you
can kind of see the mountains back there) some days you couldn't see them at all, and the
smoke moved in right after we arrived. So this episode isn't going to show you everything that
we wanted to. We're really disappointed by that and it just gives us another good reason to return
to the area around beautiful Joseph, Oregon, which is a charming resort town here in northeastern
Oregon. We're staying in the 5 Peaks RV Park because cell service is really weak as you get
down around Wake Wallowa. We'll talk about that in the course of this episode, but this has
been a wonderful stay. It's a small park, maybe 15 sites full hookup for $40 per night.
We'll first show you the RV park before we head out and do some exploration and
try to find some views without the smoke. You don't even have to leave the RV
park to find wildlife around here. You'll 5 Peaks RV Park and many other
campgrounds at our sponsor The Dyrt PRO, either on the web or in one of their #1-ranked
mobile apps available for iOS or Android, where PRO users can even search for campgrounds
offline when cell service isn't available! Through a special arrangement our Grand Adventurers get to
try all of the PRO features of The Dyrt including not only offline searching but also public land
map layers, trip routing, and campground and camping gear discounts free for 90 days! Just use
the Promo code GrandAdventure90. You'll get to try all of the PRO features free for the remainder of
this camping season, so what do you have to lose? Use the link provided down below in the video
description today to try The Dyrt PRO for free! Originally named Silver Lake and Lake City, Joseph formally changed its name in 1880
for Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce people. Its economy was originally based around
agriculture, especially grain and stock, but after a railroad line was completed to Joseph in 1908 a
lumber mill opened, bolstering the local economy. When the timber industry collapsed in the
1980s, local unemployment approached 17%. However, in 1982 a new industry was born as
three bronze foundries opened in the local area. Today the town and its surroundings
largely rely upon tourism. Still traveling with our Salt
Lake City friends Dale and Pat, we all shared a terrific meal at the
Stubborn Mule Saloon right on Main Street. We can also heartily recommend the
wood-fired pizza found at the Gold Room, right in the Jennings Hotel
also on Main Street in Joseph. One fascinating stop in Joseph for whiskey
aficionados is the Stein Distillery, a family-run business for the past 12
years. Using exclusively local grains, their offerings include not only whiskeys and
bourbons, but also vodka, rum, moonshine and more. Just a mile or so south of Joseph, Wallowa Lake
is a classic example of a glacial moraine lake, formed when moraines -- large piles
of rock and earth pushed forward by a glacier's movement -- dam a river to create
the lake behind them. Normally you'd see dramatic 9,000-foot mountains forming
a backdrop for this view of the lake with the moraines on each side;
most regrettably, not so this week. We're now thinking of trading in our
kayak for a raft just like this one. You may recall from our Episode 211
from the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, we shared the story of the Wallowa band of the Nez
Perce tribe's attempt to escape the US Cavalry by fleeing to Canada. It was here on the shores
of Wallowa Lake that their journey started, for this was the tribe's summer
campground and sacred land. Following conflict over ever-changing treaty
boundaries, settlers murdered a number of the Nez Perce in the Salmon River area, an act that was
avenged by a number of young Nez Perce warriors in 1877. Young Chief Joseph led his people away
from the Wallowa Mountains in a bid to escape the wrath that would follow, and it's here
that his father Old Chief Joseph is buried. At the south end of Wallowa Lake sits an
Oregon State Park of the same name, including a campground containing 121 full-hookup campsites
and another 88 dry campsites. We couldn't stay here because the only cell data available is on
US Cellular, of all carriers. It's an extremely popular and busy state park, so reservations are
hard to come by, but Dale and Pat managed to score a week of canceled campsites through a search
with Campnab, a terrific service we're trying out this season that scrapes Recreation.gov and
Reserve America for last-minute cancellations. We'll share more on Campnab in a future episode,
but for now it's a service worth exploring if you're trying to find hard-to-get reservations in
State Parks, National Forests and National Parks. Adjacent to the the state park is Wallowa
Lake Village, where tourism in the area was first developed in the 1920s. Today it's home
to an entertaining collection of RV parks, mini-golf courses, horseback rides,
go-kart tracks and ice cream stands. Also departing from Wallowa Lake Village is
the Wallowa Lake Tramway, a four-passenger gondola that rises 3,700 vertical feet to a
restaurant at the top of 8,150-foot Mount Howard. The Tramway first opened to the public in 1970, and we would've loved to have taken a ride, but
it makes little sense to ride the lift today to a viewpoint where all we're going to see is smoke
from the wildfires blazing in northern California. Today we're taking a ride back into the Wallowa
Mountains to the Hells Canyon viewpoint. I'm hopeful that there will be something to see
besides wildfire smoke, but I'm not optimistic. It's here at an elevation of 5,500 feet that
you take in a sweeping vista of the Snake River over 4,000 feet below, and the jagged 9,000 foot
peaks of Idaho's Seven Devils Mountains beyond. At least that's what I'm told. We have no
way today to independently verify this. I figure that if I can't see Hells
Canyon today from a distance, I can at least see it up close. I've spotted
on my map what's marked as Hess Road, which loses nearly 4,000 feet of elevation in only
7 miles en route to the Snake River below. That should be my first hint, and the complete lack
of any traffic on this road should be my second. We truly must return to this beautiful
canyon someday to camp with clearer weather. Across the river is the beautiful Hells Canyon
Campground, right on the banks of the Snake. Wanting to avoid returning to the top via
Hess Road, I'm instead following the river upstream along Homstead Road to the paved
road at Oxbow. Homestead Road utilizes a former railroad grade, which comes with
a whole series of adventures all its own. So despite the wildfire smoke we really hope
that you've enjoyed visiting the Joseph, Oregon area and the Wallowa Mountains with us!
Coming up next week we're going to explore some areas around the historic Oregon Trail, so
if you're not yet a Grand Adventurer this is the perfect time to go smash that little
red "subscribe" button down there in the lower right-hand corner of your screen, and ring
that notification bell to be sure that you come along on each and every Grand Adventure each and
every Wednesday evening! We'd be honored if you shared the channel with your friends, family,
and on social media. It's extremely important to us that if you like this episode, please be
sure to give us a big "thumbs up" down below, and while you're down below that's where you'll
find the comments section. We always love to hear from you after each episode. So until next
week from the Oregon Trail please remember, life is nothing but a Grand
Adventure! We'll see you then.
