Scary Day!!

Today we left Oregon and drove back to Boise, Idaho. We aren’t flying out until tomorrow, though, so we didn’t have to leave Joseph until this afternoon. It was hard to leave such a beautiful place. We spent the morning soaking up the view (see Extra photo with me sitting in the chair, not wanting to pull myself away!). We went on a short hike up to a nearby waterfall, and made a few other stops around town, all with beautiful views. The mountains provide a terrific backdrop to almost everything!

We also stopped briefly at Wallowa Lake, which is the main picture for today. I could have stayed all day with a picnic and a book!

We finally got on the road and this was when the scary part started for me. My two travelling companions wanted to go on the slower scenic route along a section of the Hells Canyon Byway, which follows the route of the Snake River, marking the border of Oregon and Idaho. The canyon is the deepest river canyon in North America (8000 ft, 2400m), even deeper than the Grand Canyon.

I don’t have many phobias but I don’t do well on mountainous roads when there are constant twists and hairpin turns. In fact I’m sometimes completely terrified, especially when there are sheer drops with no guard rails! It was a white knuckle drive for me. The overlook in the second Extra photo was about an hour after we started, and I was so happy to get out of the car and walk around. It certainly WAS beautiful! But when I got back into the car I went in the back seat and listened to some soothing music through my earphones and didn’t look too much out of the window. That made it a little easier.

Once we reached the lower levels the sun was setting and we could see the river and the 58 mile (93km) long Brownlee reservoir which we drove along (see second Extra photo). I coped with that stretch a little better and even opened the window and took some videos as we drove.

It was a very slow way to get to Boise. We’d left much later than we’d intended and made several short stops, so the last part of the journey on the straight highway was in the dark. We pulled off the highway in the small town of Weiser, tracked down a McDonald’s and devoured a very late fast meal. We didn’t get to the hotel until after midnight and all three of us were exhausted and ready for bed.