{"id":3187,"date":"2025-09-26T08:10:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/?p=3187"},"modified":"2025-09-26T08:10:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:10:40","slug":"wallowa-mountains-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/?p=3187","title":{"rendered":"Wallowa Mountains road trip"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"337\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-337x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3188 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-337x450.jpg 337w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-112x150.jpg 112w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-624x832.jpg 624w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/From-Mt.-Howard-smaller-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>Z and I just enjoyed a six-day road trip to the northeastern corner of our state. We  spent most of our time in and around one of its coolest mountain ranges, the Wallowas, or &#8220;Oregon&#8217;s Little Switzerland.&#8221; We took the West&#8217;s longest tramway to the top of Mt. Howard to walk the viewpoint trails. There we saw a lot of ground squirrels busy eating up for the coming colder weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"337\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-337x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-337x450.jpg 337w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-112x150.jpg 112w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-624x832.jpg 624w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mt-Howard-ground-quirrel-smaller-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"337\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-337x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3190 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-337x450.jpg 337w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-112x150.jpg 112w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-624x832.jpg 624w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/West-Fork-smaller-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>We hiked along the West Fork of the Wallowa River, an entrance to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Two other excellent events in the area were a 20-mile pedal-powered ride in little rail carts on a railway next to the river and a sighting of a black bear casually (and safely, happy to say) crossing Hwy 82 about 150 feet ahead of us.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:auto 55%\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>Having taken the most direct route to the Wallowas, we decided to return home by way of back roads, small towns, and a few more adventures. We visited the ghost town of Richmond (less ghostly than some) and finished up with a visit to a place we last saw years ago: the Painted Hills, part of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The visit was a too-timely reminder of the need to protect our monuments and other public lands.<\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"337\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-337x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3191 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-337x450.jpg 337w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-112x150.jpg 112w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-624x832.jpg 624w, https:\/\/stefoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Painted-Hills-smaller-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We hiked along the West Fork of the Wallowa River, an entrance to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Two other excellent events in the area were a 20-mile pedal-powered ride in little rail carts on a railway next to the river and a sighting of a black bear casually (and safely, happy to say) crossing Hwy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,91],"tags":[85,110],"class_list":["post-3187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oregon","category-oregon-adventures","tag-oregon-road-trips","tag-wallowas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3193,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187\/revisions\/3193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}