S3.9 Wallowa Lake

 The second leg of our anniversary trip found us at Wallowa Lake, near Joseph, Oregon. This is a destination lake, meaning it's not really on the way to anywhere, and it's quite the drive to get here. So you'll probably need someplace to spend the night. We chose Wallowa Lake State Park, which has a nice campground. While we were heading to Wallowa Lake, we heard there may be thunderstorms the next day, and so we did try to find a hotel nearby. No luck. Make sure to plan ahead.


There are two public boat ramps for Wallowa Lake. One is a small park at the North end of the lake, when you first see the lake. The other is at the State Park Marina on the South end of the lake, which is what we used. This has two "lanes" for trucks to back down, and a nice wide turn area for those waiting. 




The West side of the lake is a no wake zone. This is the side with trees, and also vacation homes with private docks. While we did see some deer wandering around, there are plenty of large, expensive homes along this side of the lake. The East side of the lake is where the boaters and skiers are enjoying the lake. There are some platforms on that side where you can get out of the boat and relax or have a picnic. We stayed on the West side. 


The Wallowa Lake Marina here has everything you need. You can rent lots of different boats, get the stuff you forgot at the store, and there are benches and picnic tables available. There is a ton of parking, and places to just hang out at the beach.


We put in before we got to our campsite, because it was before check in time when we got there, and we were unsure what tomorrow's weather would be. Remember there were predictions for thunderstorms. So we took off toward the far side. Along the way, we checked out this small waterfall trickling into the lake. It was super cold, probably snow melt from not far away.



The views here are wonderful. The lake water is clear, and the lake is large enough for everyone to spread out so it doesn't feel crowded. There aren't any little side trips you can take, it's just the main lake. It turned out to be the only day we got on the lake, since the thunderstorm did roll in the next afternoon. We didn't make it all the way across, either. I was still stiff and sore from sitting so long on the drive over, that I didn't want to sit in the kayak for that long.


There are plenty of other things to do around Wallowa Lake. The Tramway up Mt. Howard leads to some nice hiking trails, beautiful views, and a decent restaurant where we had lunch before the storm came in. Around the park is mini golf, restaurants, go carts, and I hear the Bronze Foundry tour in Joseph is really good, but no tours on Fridays. 

I definitely recommend this as a nice vacation spot.







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