Walla Walla, Washington

We left Grants Pass, Oregon, in mid-September en route to Walla Walla, Washington, for a couple of weeks of petsitting for a dog and a cat, arranged through TrustedHousesitters. But first we spent a couple of days around Portland to do some sightseeing. On our first day we crossed the Columbia River into Washington to visit Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, the site of a huge volcanic explosion in 1980. The area of destruction is impressive and we were fortunate to visit on a clear day when the entire devastated area was visible. On the drive to the mountain we passed through acres of Noble fir trees planted to replace those harvested in logging operations decades ago. Click on the first photo in each block to view larger images in a slideshow.

On our second day around Portland we headed west along the Columbia River to Astoria, near the river’s mouth at the Pacific. There we visited Fort Clatsop, part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park. The Lewis and Clark expedition spent the winter of 1805-06 at the fort before they headed back east in the spring. A replica of their fort has been built at the site, and it is impressive to see how crowded and rough the living conditions were. Of particular interest was a salt production facility about 15 miles south on the Pacific shore. A small crew spent about two months at this location boiling and evaporating saltwater to harvest salt for the trip home.

We had never visited Walla Walla so it was an adventure to spend a couple of weeks getting to know this lovely town. If your image of Washington is of evergreens and temperate rain forests, well, Eastern Washington is nothing like that. The region consists of arid semi-desert but with ample water in the Columbia River Basin to support agriculture. Wheat has been a major crop over the years but during the past few decades a vibrant wine industry has emerged in the Walla Walla Valley. There are over a hundred small wineries in the region and it has become a wine destination. We didn’t do any wine tasting ourselves but we enjoyed taking drives in the countryside to see the vineyards and wineries.

We stayed in a house in one of the beautiful older neighborhoods in central Walla Walla, a great neighborhood for walking. The well-kept old homes and mature trees reminded us of our old neighborhood in Woodland. We were petsitting for a dog and a cat. Genji is a Shiba Inu, a Japanese breed known for their intelligence and independence. He is ten years old, around our age in dog years, and we got along splendidly. He enjoyed morning and afternoon walks in the neighborhood and he would make his presence known if we encountered another dog, making sure that our territory was protected. Tiger Lily is only a year old so she still has some of her playful kitten characteristics. One of her favorite tricks was to hide in the bushes and playfully pounce on Genji when he returned from his walk. Genji, for the most part, just ignored her.

Downtown Walla Walla has been rejuvenated in recent decades with the rise of the wine industry. It was featured by Sunset Magazine as one of the best small-town main streets in the West. It was fun to stroll around downtown and peer at the shops, restaurants, and tasting rooms that cater to the tourists. It seemed like there are at least two dozen tasting rooms in the downtown area, augmenting the tasting rooms at the wineries around the region.

Whitman College is a well-regarded liberal arts college in Walla Walla. It has an array of sculpture displayed throughout the beautiful campus. We spent part of an afternoon strolling around campus and admiring the sculpture.

Pioneer Park is Walla Walla’s main city park. It has a large aviary with a variety of birds from around the world. The aviary was very impressive for a small city like Walla Walla.

We made several short day trips around the Walla Walla region. Just outside of town is the Whitman Mission National Historic Site, a National Park Service facility documenting the history of a mission settled in 1836 by Marcus Whitman, a physician and Christian missionary. Whitman and his party made friends with the local Cayuse Tribe and for several years their outpost was a welcome stop for settlers traveling along the Oregon Trail. But by 1847 the Cayuse suspected that Whitman was trying to poison them and they killed him along with about a dozen of his group. The backlash to this killing among Americans in the eastern states led to immense cruelty toward Native Americans in the coming years, and also led to the establishment of the Oregon Territory to help the federal government control events in the Pacific Northwest.

The historic site also chronicles the life and culture of the Cayuse and other local tribes. The Cayuse were somewhat nomadic, moving every few months to take advantage of seasonal food supplies. A park ranger demonstrated how the Cayuse would erect their tipis at each new location.

Mill Creek runs through the center of Walla Walla and the city has established a network of bicycle and pedestrian trails that extend well out of town. We enjoyed walks along these trails, often seeing water birds along the way.

On several days we drove around the region and admired the beautiful vineyards and wineries. Most of the wineries are fairly new and many have tasting rooms with striking modern architecture. The local community college offers programs in viticulture and enology to supply an educated workforce for the local wine industry.

When we left Walla Walla we drove south through Eastern Oregon, one of the most sparsely populated regions in the United States. The drive south through Pendleton and Burns offers lots of beautiful scenery. We stopped at Lake Abert, near Klamath Falls, and we were struck by the low water level. Evidence of the continued drought is everywhere in the western states.