Day Trip !

The wagon train we chanced upon at Fort Walla Walla started out from Baker City, Oregon.  Since coming to Washington we've heard of that place several times.  We figure if a wagon train could make it to Walla Walla in two weeks we ought to be able to make it to Baker City in a day trip.  So off we go!

The Blue Mountains have been a backdrop for us since arriving in Walla Walla.  Today we will drive around, through, over, and behind them.  The area is very sparsely settled - most of western Washington and Oregon is.  It's very arid here with very, very low humidity.  Every vineyard and wheat field we see is constantly being irrigated, but with water things are a deep rich green.  There are wind farms on the Oregon border;  we can see them from our lodgings.

We drop down through Milton-Freewater and Pendleton to pick up Interstate 84.  There is a world famous wool manufacturer in Pendleton.  (Wait a minute!  I thought the sheep manufactured the wool!)  They have a museum there, and I would LOVE to go through it - maybe I could see someone actually spinning wool into yarn - but they're only open Monday through Friday.  Bummer.

Picking up the Interstate we travel through the Umatilla Indian Reservation and into the Blue Mountain Forest State Scenic Corridor.  There are small campgrounds up and down this area of the highway with interpretive centers at each one detailing wagon train daily activities, with quotes from actual diaries of the 1800's emigrants.  Very nice!

In the beginning I said that we could make a day-trip of this.  Well, not if we stop and read all of these!  So we stop at several, I take some iPhone shots of the interpretive signs, and while John drives on down the road I read the photos to him.  Best of both worlds!