Wild Animals Without Fear.

We did not lure this chipmunk with food. It scampered up to my teenager, who was sitting on a rock at the summit of Mount Howard. As we watched, the 'munk walked right into his hand.

That was not our only close encounter with wildlife on the mountain.

We stepped off the Wallowa Lake Tramway and started exploring the 2-and-a-half miles of groomed trails atop Mount Howard. There were still some patches of snow defying the June sun.

Barely a hundred yards away from the tram terminal, we noticed little burrows in the grass, and all of a sudden a little creature popped out of one. Quite unafraid, it scampered toward us.

Of course the kids let out squeals of delight. My slow camera missed the next shot, of the creature crawling over my son’s shoe! We were really astounded at their boldness.As there were so many burrows, I initially thought this was a prairie dog town. But on closer inspection, these were ground squirrels.

Reluctantly, we left the burrow area and followed the trail to take in the sweeping views of the Wallowas and Snake River areas - rugged canyons, stark cliffs, snowy peaks.



As we went by some sparse patches of trees, the sound of chittering caught our attention. The chipmunks were out, and spring was clearly on their minds as males chased little females all over the place.

Some of the critters had their cheeks fully puffed with food! It was absolutely enchanting the way they ventured to the trail, completely without fear.

At the mountain overlook, we sat down to take in the view, and got to see just how unfraid the chipmunks were.



There were other distractions on Mount Howard. Big nutcrackers flew about, too fast for my clumsy efforts with the camera.

And of course, wildflowers. They were much smaller than those at lower elevations. Could these little white blossoms be the famed edelweiss, I wondered?

Then, there was this little cultural observation to round out our little walk before we took the tram back down to our car.

Taking in the Wallowa Magic.

View of the Wallowa Mountains from the summit of Mount Howard

Last week, my children and I took a short trip to the breathtaking Wallowa Lake and Mountains of northeastern Oregon. It's about a three-hour drive south (and a little bit east) of Moscow - a scenic drive that took us up and down through many hairpin turns.

We began our trip in Idaho, crossed the Snake River into Washington state, where we proceeded south through Asotin, and the little hamlet of Anatone, where a 4-H sign announces the area's statistics.


Fine with me - when I go somewhere to get away, I'd much rather not deal with crowds of people!


True, few people live along that stretch. But what it lacks in population, it compensates with majestic scenery: the Snake River, Hells Canyon, the Wallowa Whitman National Forest. There were lots of oohs and aahs and "look at that!"-s emanating from our car.





Through the entire drive, were all sorts of wildflowers. Blue, yellow, purple, white, pink and orange. Most were at their peak.

It was also a great opportunity to spot wildlife - lots of deer and even a pair of wild turkeys.



We spent the night in lovely Enterprise. This whole area is called the "Switzerland of Oregon," for good reason.


Part of the town was barricaded. Apparently, early that morning a big fire destroyed an apartment building that was nearly a century old.

Northwest Public Radio was coming in strong on our translator at 100.9FM. It never ceases to amaze me how our signal spreads out so far from our Pullman studios, sometimes into pretty remote areas.

Next morning, we headed out on the road to Wallowa Lake, which took us through one of Oregon's most picturesque towns, Joseph.

Named for Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph, this is a very artistic town. Its renowned foundry, Valley Bronze of Oregon, casts sculptures of all sizes. In fact, the town is lined with full-size bronze sculptures of animals and people, such as this one.

This was situated in a little square, but most of the sculptures line the main street and are thus set against a magnificent backdrop of snow-capped mountains. (Sorry, I don't have any of those to share at this time - not without forcing you to view family vacation pictures, at any rate!)

After strolling through this charming town, we went on to Wallowa Lake, and took the tram on a steep four thousand-foot climb up to the summit of Mount Howard.

We'll pick up that part of our trip in the next post.