Paddling Wallowa Lake

At last, the weather today was warm and party sunny, so we rushed out to paddle our kayaks on Wallowa Lake.  It is a ribbon lake 1 mile south of Joseph, Oregon, and sits at an elevation of 4,372 feet. Impounded by high moraines, it was formed by a series of Pleistocene glaciers. On the south end of the lake is Wallowa Lake State Park, and a small community made up of vacation homes, lodging, restaurants, as well as other small businesses. Wallowa Lake has been used for recreation since at least 1880.  The north end of the lake empties into the Wallowa River, which flows through our campground in Wallowa, Oregon.

As we carried our kayaks out to the lakeshore from our Jeep, we weren't particularly worried about wildlife.  But Kathy suddenly stopped with a yelp and we spotted this snake along the gravelly beach, just as we approached the margin of the lake:

It didn't take us long to launch our kayaks:

The wildlife was everywhere, but we didn't always predict where we would see it.  As soon as we launched our kayaks, Kathy spotted this Merganser duck --

-- and then we spotted this pair of wood ducks who appeared to be scouting out nesting sites along the lakeshore:

Kathy spotted the inlet of Wallowa River into the lake and made her usual attempt to paddle upstream, to little effect:

But David spotted this bald eagle nest in one of the trees above the Wallowa River.  We could see one of the adult eagles tending the nest.  The young would be too small to be spotted at this time of year:

We turned our kayaks down-lake, where the mountains on the left met the plateau and prairie to the right:

Along the lakeshore, we found large granite rocks and boulders, forming a grey background to the bleached tree trunks sloping down the rocky shoreline:

This is a classic Pacific Northwest landscape, with pine trees gracing the shores of the lake:

We were particularly curious about buoys that dotted both shores of the lake.  Below, Kathy examined one of the buoys, which appeared to be a mooring buoy:

We had difficulty understanding how roots of trees perched above the waterline could be exposed as much as these were:

Driftwood carried the reddish hues of the fir trees surrounding the lake:

We crossed the lake toward a line of cabins along the lakeshore to the west, and then turned south toward the state park.  The marina and its refreshment building sat gracefully on the southern shore:

We soon returned to our launching point and hoisted the kayaks back up on the Jeep.  Kathy wanted to hike across the southern shoreline to get a closer look at the eagles' nest we had spotted from the lake.  So we moved across the shoreline, which was alternating gravel and wet sand, and which formed a broad delta for the Wallowa River's supply into the lake.

We hadn't walked very far when we spotted this small bird.  She had obviously seen us first, and she was feigning injury to get us to follow her, to lead us away from her precious nest and the eggs that are waiting to hatch:

All in all, our visit to Wallowa Lake produced much more wildlife viewing than we expected.  It didn't get sunny until mid-afternoon, when we had already left the lake, so we don't have a lot of blue-sky photos to show you.  However, in parting we share this 360 degree view of wallowa lake taken by David as he tried to rotate his kayak with his paddle while recording the video.  Please excuse the shaking of the camera.  Eventually, he'll get this technique perfected.

We have one more full day here in Wallowa, and we intend to used it well before the rainy weather closes in.