Wallowa Lake and WA Shenanigans

Discussion in 'Adventure, Hiking, Backpacking and Travel' started by artigas, Aug 17, 2018.

  1. artigas

    artigas Member

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    PSA: Wasn't planning on laying out the backstory, but it happened. Skip down if you just wanna see pics.

    What was planned to be a celebration of my grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary actually turned out to be a funeral for my 94 year-old grandpa. His health really took a turn about a month before the planned event. He held-on to see all of his grand kids and great grand kids who were travelling in. Had 4 generations of Hadley boys there with my gpa, dad, me, and my little boy.

    He was a WWII vet who spent time in Europe during the war. He then obtained a degree in civil engineering and worked as an engineer for the army corp of engineers. That job took him and his family (my dad is the oldest of 3) to Livorno Italy for 8 years. My dad lived there from the time he was 10 until he graduated high school. They were able to travel all over Europe during those years. He could build anything, and fix anything that was broken. They lived in Walla Walla, WA before and after their stint in Italy. It wasn't too far from where I lived in WA, so we saw them often. At 94, he was ready to get outta Dodge, and the timing worked out great to be able to see him and celebrate his life with family.

    Anyway, while we were in WA for that, my parents and most of my siblings went down to Wallowa OR for a couple of days. My mom's dad had a large beef ranch in that area years ago. We also shot guns on our farm in WA and took the boat out to the reservoir near the farm where I grew up.

    Wallowa Day 1
    Hiked up to a waterfall with the whole crew. It was a pretty good hike, considering we had 10 kids (2 under the age of 1).

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    me and my daughter looking down at Wallowa Lake
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    the waterfall
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    Day 2
    We all took the gondola up to the summit of Mt. Howard ( a 3,700' vertical ascent), then hiked around up there. The views were amazing. While up there, my 2 bro-in-laws, one my brothers, and I took off to hike a few nearby peaks for some even better views. We gained some solid elevation.

    ready on the tram
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    missing 2 brothers, a sister, a sister-in-law, and 1 kid
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    me and the boss with Wallowa Lake in the background
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    plenty of sunscreen on the animal's big bald head
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    Then we did some shooting back on the farm
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    then some boating
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  2. Jeff Randall

    Jeff Randall ESEE Knives / Randall's Adventure & Training Staff Member

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    Awesome scenery and very cool story about your grandpa. Great post!
     
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  3. DYSPHORIC JOY

    DYSPHORIC JOY Administrator Staff Member

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    Sorry for your loss. Excellent pics.
     
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  4. Strigidae

    Strigidae Administrator Staff Member

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    Beautiful family and beautiful pictures. Wow!
     
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  5. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    Great photos! I love the Wallowas and the Blue mountains!
    Little known fact about the area is that Hollywood LOVES to use the area for Mountain footage! In fact from what I understand when the makers of the Lord of The Rings films needed footage for some of the more mountainous shots they use the Blues’s and the Wallowas for that exact purpose!

    @artigas are the deer at the lake as bad as they use to be?? I remeber as a kid they would swarm vehicles to get fed!
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2018
  6. Bushman5

    Bushman5 Member

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  7. artigas

    artigas Member

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    I didn’t see any deer around the park/campground, but we didn’t actually hang out in the park by the lake, so they might still be a nuisance. I remember them being around when I was there about 10 years ago.
     

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