Day 15: The Road to Imnaha and on to Wallowa Lake

Thursday

Our campground and road through the mountains lay in the Imnaha Valley, small by comparison to the Snake River, but would be a grand place if found anywhere in England. Instead of continuing along Route 39, with its narrow winding road over the mountains we decided to follow the river to Imnaha Village and then cut back to Joseph, about 22 miles longer, but flat and relatively straight. The views were beautiful, but the road was awful, so the 30 mile gravel road took us about 2 hours to travel. We did however get to Imnaha just about in one piece, though our mirror fell off the wall of the trailer, fortunately not breaking.

Imnaha is the one village in the Imnaha Valley. There is a general store there; however the village does have a long and honourable history. The Imnaha Valley was the traditional winter homeland of the Nez Perce Indians. Since 1805, when Lewis and Clarke passed near by, the world of the Indian had been squeezed in almost every way by the white settlers. By 1855 they were restricted to a reservation, in 1861 they were asked/told to sign a treaty which removed 90% of that land. Five tribes refused to sign. This was part of the Indian Wars. By 1877 life had become intolerable and Young Chief Joseph led his tribe on their journeyof over a thousand miles, lasting thirty months, fighting the army all the way and ending up close to the border with Canada at Bear Paw. That march started from Imnaha Village. One can only imagine the activities of that Spring in that small village, but I bet is was not quiet as the whole tribe packed up and left with the Army close on their heels.

We continued to Wallowa Lake State Park, which is also part of the Indian Tribal Lands. It is also another fascinating geomorphological feature. The valley above it was carved out by glaciers and in doing so they dumped rock and rubble (moraines) at the entrance to the valley, the area behind the moraine filled with water to create a lake. The only thing about this is that the lake is about four miles long and the moraine is a couple of hundred feet high. The road from Joseph to Wallowa State Park approaches from the end of the lake and all you see is a hill in front of you, until you rise up and over the top and see the huge blue lake, with the mountains behind it and this huge wall of rock and rubble alongside, containing the waters. It is quite an impressive sight. The State Park is at the southern end in amongst some lovely pine forest. We managed to get a couple of full hook up site, even though it is now the weekend.