Marsha's Musings: Our Trip to Joseph, OR & Up Mt. Howard

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We kind of got snookered out of all our family vacation plans this summer when Sarah got hired at the nursing home.  So we were happy to see that she had Labor Day off and planned one of the day trips that we originally had planned before she was hired.

We had never been to Joseph, OR before, so this was our destination of choice for this day trip. Driving up Rattlesnake Grade past Anatone and Field Springs was uneventful.  We had been there before.  But things got interesting beyond that.

We came into open range country and a small herd of cattle decided the road was their's.  They lumbered across the road, looking at us like we were the ones who were in the way.  The sign said, "Trucks entering roadway".  Nathaniel said, "Those don't look like trucks to me!"

The road snaked, and hair-pinned up and down the mountain hillsides for an hour and a half.  Narrow sharp hair-pin turns, that were a little freaky when you met someone coming the other way, were numerous.  Sheer drop off cliffs, deep canyons, wooded areas and barren areas were plentiful.  At one point there were trees on the mountain we were driving on but just across the canyon the hillside was barren.  It was all very beautiful and breath-taking.

We passed Boggin's Oasis and half considered eating there, but it was early for lunch so we bypassed it.  It consisted of just a restaurant, nothing more to see.  We drove on for another 20 minutes or so before coming to Enterprise.

Enterprise looked like a nice little community.  They had a football stadium.  That seemed to impress everyone.

Joseph, OR was next on the agenda.  It was not very far from Enterprise.  Maybe 10 or 15 minutes if I remember right.  It is a quaint little town that reminded me of a combination of LaConner, WA, Winthrop, WA. It had the Western town feel of Winthrop with some wooden boardwalks in places.  It had the quaint shops like we would find in LaConner.

We shopped for a little bit in some of the antique shops and gift shops before deciding to eat lunch.  We ate lunch at The Cheyane Cafe.  It was a unique family owned place.  It was not fast food. In fact they had a big banner across the wall that said, "We do not serve fast food. We serve good food as fast as we can."  We enjoyed watching and listening.  They were training a boy of about 10 or 11 years old how to be a good employee.  Every so often you could hear someone saying, "Good job! You did real well!"  And then you might hear, "You did not clean that table that fast!  You go back and do it over."  We enjoyed evesdropping on some of the local conversations around us.  Our server was really funny.  She accidentally gave Rick a soup spoon instead of a regular spoon and she said, "Ding, ding!  You get the special spoon!"

After lunch we decided to go to Lake Wallowa and ride the tram up the mountainside.  This area reminded me of Levenworth, WA.  Not that there is a lake in Levenworth that I remember, but the Bravarian motif reminded me of Levenworth.

So we drove into the park and immediately took a wrong turn.  We drove all through the park until we came to a dead.  We decided maybe we went the wrong way, so we turned around.  We caught sight of the tram going up the mountain side and it took my breath away.  I almost panicked at the thought of riding it.  I did some serious thought about just sending the kids up by themselves but then Nathaniel started having second thoughts too and that would have left Sarah by herself.  In the end I sucked it up and went and so did Nathaniel.  So glad we did.

However, I was still in somewhat of a panic when they sent our gondola hanging of the cable and up the mountain.  When we crossed the first pole and the gondola rattled and shook I thought I was going to fall to my death with this little box as my casket....after all they lock you in from the outside!  They have a wrench that they lock the door with.  Sarah and Nathaniel laughed at me for at least half the trip up.  I was so panicked I was taking homeopathic gas pills in hopes that they would help me calm down!  Placebo effect?  Most likely!  But it worked.

Sarah took photos of me being scared.

The view was breathtaking as we climbed higher and higher...the climb was 3000 feet and the summit was over 8100 feet!  We had a beautiful view for about 20 minutes.  Then the storms that I am known for bringing with me rolled in and we had clouds and torrential downpours for 30 minutes.  We took shelter under the cafe roof.  Finally gave up after half an hour and went back down.  Of course after we were down for about 15 minutes the sun came out and we had given up our tickets so we couldn't go back up.  But we still enjoyed it all.

While on the summit, Sarah had a chipmunk jump up on her.  They were everywhere and obviously fed by lots of people. 

After we rode the tram and visited the Bravarian Shoppe we went back to Joseph to shop some more.  So much to see.  So many of the trinket shops sold fun signs.  One of my favorites was "We hope the dock doesn't rot while we wait for our ship to come in." We enjoyed the little gardens between some of the buildings.  They looked so inviting. We also enjoyed the bronze artwork throughout the town.

It was time to find a place to eat dinner, but they roll the streets at 5pm there.  Everything where I could have had a chance of a gluten free meal and a garlic free meal for Rick was closed. So we decided to hightail it for home and eat at home.  We could make it home by 6:15 or 6:30.  So off we went.

As we drove, we began to notice things we had not seen before on the trip in.  The further we went the more uncomfortable I got.  Then we began driving by a river.  We had not driven along side a river coming there.  Then a small town and then a place called Wallowa and a sign telling us how many miles to LaGrande.  We were lost.

So we turned around and made our way back to Enterprise.  A total of about 40 minutes was wasted there on that little scenic route.  We stopped at the Safeway to use the restroom and ask for directions and got ourselves headed in the right direction.  I drove all the way home.  I nearly swallowed my tongue when we were rounding a very sharp hair-pin turn and a pickup and horse trailer came around from the other direction and they were taking their half out of the middle of the road!  Other than that the ride home was uneventful except for my white knuckles on the steering wheel as I made our way around the Rattlesnake Grade.