Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Wallowa Lake


Before driving home from Wallowa County on Sunday, Sarah and I took a quick drive around Wallowa Lake. It felt like winter was on its way, but we still found plenty of birds in the water including Mallards, Western Grebes, American Coots, and Common Loons.

The lake bed was carved by huge glaciers that left many large moraines like the one above. Some say this is the best example of a glacial moraine in the country.

We walked among some large ponderosa pines and other conifers. The pale green trees in the background are western larches that are transitioning from green to yellow before their needles drop for the winter.

Some larch branches had recently blown down. This branch had landed on top of another engraved by beetles.

We could have hiked around the lake all day, but we had to return to the real world. This part of Oregon is not as far from Portland as I had previously thought, so we will return soon.

3 comments:

EcoRover said...

Ah, that darned "real world." Thanks for sharing a gorgeous place.

cieldequimper said...

One of my favourite places in the whole world. Thank you for showing it.

Kathie Brown said...

Well, I would if I were you because it looks beautiful from your photos! I miss larch trees. We have them in Maine but I live in AZ now.