Joseph, Oregon

June 25, 2026

Joseph, Oregon is a beautiful place tucked away in eastern Oregon amidst the Wallowa Mountains. If not for its out-of-the-way-ness and relative inconvenience in getting to, it would surely be crowded all the time. We don't have anything against other people, but it is sure nice to escape the popular places every now and then, especially when we happen upon an idyllic location like this one!

After leaving Twin Falls, we stopped for the night just over the Oregon border at a free boondocking spot along the Snake River.

Lots of brown hills in this part of Idaho

The contrast between the brown hills and the irrigated fields was striking

Soon after crossing into Oregon, the Snake River could be seen in the distance.

Our quiet spot for the night

Our view of the Snake River

Our overnight stay was very pleasant. Only one or two other parties shared the large parking lot with us, and we hardly noticed they were there. We were treated to the sounds of coyotes that evening, and even the next morning. Plus, we witnessed one of the most vibrant sunsets we have seen. (If you haven't guessed by now, Julie is kind of a sunset junkie 😉.)

There was an RV park adjacent to our free parking lot

Be still my beating heart!

When we got on the road the next morning, we found the westbound ramp back onto I84 closed. A detour sign guided us to I84 eastbound, which is the way we had come from and opposite the way we wanted to go. So, we had the pleasure of hauling the camper back up the steep hill/mountain/whatever that we had come down the day before so that we could exit and turn around to get back on our westward track. But, not only did we have to go way up to the top, but the exit was a couple of miles beyond the top, so we also had to go down before getting off. So, we got to go up, then down, then up again, then down again until we ended up where we started. Not such a big deal in a car, but when you are hauling your house around, it can go through the gas pretty quickly at 5 or 6 miles to the gallon in mountainous terrain. We figured the detour set us back 5 or 10 bucks.

The detour was soon forgotten, and we were on our way to greener pastures (quite literally, as it turned out).

Not too long after turning off the interstate, we entered a different world.

Greener pastures!

Our home for the week was a field adjacent to Chief Joseph Rodeo Grounds, just outside of the town of Joseph. It was nothing fancy, but it was inexpensive and quiet. We chose a spot next to a creek, and while we couldn't actually see the creek through the trees, the sound of it was very pleasant. Some of the days we had the whole field to ourselves, with the exception of a reclusive person at the far end of the property who had a teepee set up some of the time.

The boarded up registration station was only slightly sketchy

The spot we chose backed up to a creek hidden in the trees.

Adjacent to the property were railroad tracks that had been converted into a tourist attraction where you rent little cars that you pedal for a few miles before turning around and going back the way you came.

Our first night's sunset wasn't too shabby!

On Father's Day, Julie treated Rick to breakfast at a cute little diner in Joseph (because cuteness is a really important metric for Rick 😉) .

A beautiful morning in the countryside

Father's Day breakfast was at the cute Cheyenne Cafe. Actually, the inside was not so cute--it was kind of a 70s diner vibe--but very "authentic" and true to its roots! (We ended up eating outside because the weather was so nice.)

We walked up and down the cute Main Street of the town after breakfast. The statue pays homage to Chief Joseph, the town's namesake.

Afterwards, we rode our bikes along many of the nearby scenic byways.

This was a very friendly horse who trotted out to meet us as we were passing by

Apparently, Idaho wants to adopt parts of Oregon and even northern California. That sure would be a wonky looking state!

A white tailed deer greeted us when we got back home.

This is a pretty bad photo, but we were amused to see the deer bound away rather than run.

Monday's activity was a short hike at nearby Iwetemlakin State Heritage Site.

Further down the road, we checked out the beautiful Wallowa Lake...

A mamma merganser with her babies

On Tuesday, we did something we rarely do--we took a tram ride up to the top (or almost the top) of nearby Mount Howard. The mountains were looking awfully inviting, and it was either fork over some bucks to effortlessly glide up the mountainside in a little box to get up close and personal, or trudge up 3700 vertical feet of rugged terrain which would probably take us a few days. There was essentially no contest in this decision, but Julie's only hesitation prior to purchasing the tickets was imagining Alan's glance of deep and abiding disappointment in his parents giving in to the easy way up. This hesitation lasted only but a moment, and the ticket purchases promptly followed. (Sorry, dear son! 😉)

There were no lines to wait in, and soon we were heading up the mountain in our little box, feeling pretty smug that we were cheating or something. After about 15 or 20 minutes, we were deposited on the mountaintop where a couple of miles of trails were just waiting there for us to explore.

We got to drive along Wallowa Lake again

We were hoping that we didn't have to ride in the little yellow tray thing 😉

Looking down at Wallowa Lake

Looking the other way

Some people taking a rest at the little wedding venue

The chipmunks were a little chunky here

Notice the little chipmunk standing up next to Rick

It's really hard to get a picture of a chipmunk in the act of blinking--but Julie did it!

Part of the trail was through pine forest that smelled really nice!

There was a paraglider that had recently launched from the mountain. You can just barely see him/her in the center of the photo.

We got a bite to eat at the "highest restaurant in the Pacific Northwest"

Heading back down

The beautiful Wallowa Mountains...

...and the rest of Oregon

The next day, we put in a little more effort for our scenery on the Hurricane Creek Trail. This was another scenic area very close to Joseph and also not crowded. It has been nice not having to plan our outings to avoid crowds!

Beautiful roadside vignette on the way to our hike

Hurricane Creek Trail

The ole "crossing the river on a log" shot

Hurricane Creek

Entering the Eagle Cap Wilderness

Our first good view of Sacajawea Peak

You can just barely see a series of waterfalls in the background. In person, we could actually hear the roar of water.

Slick Rock Gorge

Slick Rock Falls

Rick decided he needed a closer look

Yeah, this doesn't look sketchy at all --hope the photosphere was worth it!

Looking down from up the falls. Bonus points if you can spot Julie down below!

Another view of the gorge

Heading back the way we came (no loop for us this time)

On our final day, we took another bike ride over to the western shore of Wallowa Lake. While we couldn't see a whole lot of the lake through the trees, it was a pleasant ride none the less.

Most of the town of Joseph has amazing views--Julie was very enthralled!

We saw a fair number of deer roaming about

Didn't seem all that congested

We enjoyed looking at the many homes dotted along the western shore of Wallowa Lake. Rather, we enjoyed their roofs, mainly, as they were all a considerable distance below the road.

This one was really neat with a living roof

Joseph was one of our favorite travel locations. It had a lot of great scenery, wasn't inundated with crowds, had a friendly, quaint town, and our creek-side campsite in the center of it all was awesome, especially for $20/night. Of course, it helped that the weather was wonderful as well. It was kind of hard to leave, but the upcoming weekend forecast was calling for cold and rainy (including rain/snow and 30s up on Mount Howard!), and so it was good timing that we were moving on.

Even the small grocery store in town had great views!

Hard to say good-bye to this!

Whew--that was a lot of pictures! Thanks for sticking with us to the bitter end!

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