Wallowa Mountains-- the Switzerland of Oregon

The Wallowa Mountains abound with gorgeous alpine glacially carved lakes such as Wallowa Lake, or small ones like Cached Lake

Hidden in the remote northeastern corner of Oregon is a land of Alps unlike anywhere else in Oregon. Here you ascend deep u-shaped canyons for 10-20 miles to reach the inner glacial sanctums of bare rock and crystalline lakes. Your neck aches from gazing so steeply upward at the 9,000+ peaks on either side, ears full of the sounds of swift streams and distant waterfalls crashing down the steep granite slopes of hanging valleys high above. The canyon vegetation alternates pleasingly between a varied forest of pines and true firs, and numerous resplendent meadows where the scent of wild onion crushes underfoot. Outdoors writers like Mark Bagett report that this region of Oregon supports a population of the rare and exciting Wolverine, the ferocious "carcajou" of the Canadian Northwest Territories.

Pictured above is a nameless lake reached only via a faint, nearly abandoned trail. It nestles in hidden glory in its hanging valley high above the headwaters of the Minam River. The Eagle Cap Wildeness preserves the central portion of the Wallowa Mountains. It was established as one of the first Oregon Primitive Areas in 1930, and formally designated as one of Oregon's earliest Wilderness Areas on 10/7/1940, at a size of 293,775 acres (Oregon's largest Wilderness). Just to the east on the Idaho border lies the magnificent Hells Canyon Wilderness, established 12/31/1975, a medium-sized Oregon wilderness area at 108,900 acres (the Idaho portion of the Wilderness adds another 83,800 acres). For a map of all 40 of Oregon's wilderness areas, please click this link: http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=stateView&state=or&map=orwest

 

Cached Lake, 7,300 ft., Eagle Creek drainage

A quality of the Wallowas so unlike the Cascades is the brillance of the light that bathes them; their large expanses of gem-like, crystallized metamorphic rocks catch and throw the high altitude sunlight in an arresting manner similar to the High Sierras, John Muir's "Range of Light."

 

October, 2001. New page: click to visit the southern portion of the range at Eagle Creek:

Eagle Creek area

Click on image below for larger image

Prospect Lake8,400 feet

and links to Oregon's highest lakes!


Wallowas as seen from the southwest deserts near Baker


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Page Last Revised 5/10/2006