Wednesday, Sept. 21 (the first day of autumn) we got an early start and headed northwest to the Wallowa Mountains and Wallowa Lake State Park, near Joseph, OR.(No. 12 on the map) We arrived about noon and set up camp for three nights in the state park. We had been to this park in 1999 while on a caravan trip with our Airstream group, so we were a bit familiar with the location.

Thursday morning we packed a lunch and headed out for the day to explore the Hells Canyon Recreation Area. Hells Canyon is the deepest gorge (1-1/2 miles) in the North American continent. It is 10 miles across and is expansive like the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The terrain, however, is quite different from the Grand Canyon and is formed of large rounded basalt mountains and deep valleys. The Snake River runs through the heart of Hells Canyon before joining the Columbia River further north.

We went to a high lookout point from where we could see down in the canyon and across into the states of Idaho and Washington. Later we drove down some 7500 feet to the edge of the Snake River itself. There we enjoyed our picnic lunch before returning along the scenic route to our campground.

Next morning, Friday, Sept. 22, we awoke to fine a very cold rainy morning. In fact, just a few hundred feet higher elevation there was snow. So we enjoyed a leisurely pancake breakfast, tidied up the trailer and headed out about 10:30 am to see some sites in the local towns. We headed first to Enterprise, some 12 miles away, to visit the Terminal Gravity microbrewery there. But it was closed until 4 pm. So we looked for the library so we might check our email. But it was closed too. Also, a search for a quick lube station proved fruitless. So we headed back up the road 6 miles to Joseph where we visited several art galleries and had lunch at a small restaurant that featured Oregon micro brews where we had fish and chips and clam chowder.

By early afternoon we were getting cold so headed back to the trailer to warm up and rest a bit before going to the Alpenfest in the evening. The Wallowa Lake area is known as the "Little Switzerland" of Oregon and that weekend was a Swiss festival featuring yodeling music and German food and local arts and crafts. The inclement weather certainly diminished the outdoor arts and crafts part of the festival on Friday, but the German food and the music were inside a large hall in the architectural style of a Swiss farmhouse. Featured yodeler was Kerry Christensen who we saw and heard earlier this year at Caliente Springs near Palm Springs, CA. We enjoyed his show in February and looked forward to catching his performance again. We had dinner of German sausage and sauerkraut and bread along with Oktoberfest beer. We were fortunate to find warm seating near the large fireplace from where we could enjoy dinner and the show.