WH News & Notes
Summer Hiking

Let Western Hiker be your guide each summer into Eagle Cap Wilderness in Oregon's incredible Wallowa Mountains.

The 1800 square mile Wallowa Mountain range is located in the northeast corner of Oregon and boasts alpine peaks, steep-walled valleys, and five designated wild and scenic rivers. At the heart of the range lies the 540 square mile Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon's largest.

From the Grande Rhonde Valley in the west to Hells Canyon country in the east, you'll have plenty of room to roam along hundreds of miles of trails without crossing your own path.

You'll find classic alpine meadows, the highest natural lake in Oregon, four officially designated wild and scenic rivers, snowfields, glaciers, rock faces, warm sun, the bluest of blue sky, and no traffic, television, phones, email, or worry.

For climbers, the range has seventeen summits over 9000 feet in elevation with the tallest named after the Sacajawea, the famed guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition. Sacajawea, Matterhorn, and many other 9000+ summits offer some of the best technical and nontechnical climbing in Oregon.

  -- Barry Greer


Hells Canyon Wilderness
Hells Canyon is formed by one of the West's greatest rivers. The Snake River rises just west of the Continential Divide in Yellowstone National Park and flows south through Jackson Hole, then westward across the volcanic plains of southern Idaho before it cuts north through the Rockies to form Hells Canyon, deepest river gorge in North America.

Two thousand feet deeper than the Grand Canyon, Hells Canyon is a geographic and human marvel. You can travel with Western Hiker into the canyon and through 8000 years of human history in country long the home of the storied Nez Perce people. The 652,488 acre Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in Oregon and Idaho includes 219,000 acres of designated wilderness to preserve a wild river with world class rapids, and to protect its shores and benchlands where you can see pictographs and petroglyphs, pika, cougar, bobcat, bear, elk, deer, mountain goat, and bighorn sheep.

Cities are a very distant memory here. Few areas in the lower 48 states offer the remoteness and solitude you'll find in Hells Canyon. Only one road reaches the Snake River in a 67-mile stretch of the canyon, and it ends at the river without crossing. The only lights you'll see at night are the stars, and the only noise you'll hear will be the rush of the river heading north to join the mighty Columbia in Washington state.

Join us for a journey into the wild heart of the American West.


Make your reservation today!

CONTACT INFORMATION
Western Hiker
P.O. Box 568
Union, OR 97883
(541)562-1181
(888)420-7855


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