Wallowa Lake Tramway summit view
— — the valley opens, all at once.
Not only on a wall.
“From the deck at the top of Mount Howard, the Wallowa Valley falls away to the north, the Eagle Cap Wilderness piles up to the south, and on a clear day the Seven Devils of Idaho rise across Hells Canyon to the east. The tramway carries you 3,700 feet up in about fifteen minutes. Most people get quiet at the top. from the studio
Wallowa Lake Tramway summit view, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Wallowa Lake Tramway runs from the south end of Wallowa Lake, near Joseph, Oregon, to the summit of Mount Howard at 8,150 feet. It rises about 3,700 vertical feet in fifteen minutes and is often called the steepest four-passenger gondola in North America. The base station sits in Wallowa County on the edge of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. From the summit, a two-mile loop of maintained walking paths visits four named overlooks of the surrounding ranges.
Mount Howard's summit air is thin, dry, and usually a good fifteen to twenty degrees cooler than the valley. The walking loop crosses subalpine fir and whitebark pine, with wildflowers in July and a hard frost most mornings by mid-September. Clear-day visibility regularly carries to Idaho's Seven Devils, forty miles east across Hells Canyon, and south down the spine of the Eagle Cap Wilderness toward the Matterhorn at 9,824 feet.
The tramway operates daily from late May into late September, weather permitting, with the last car down at five. Round-trip tickets are timed and reservations are recommended in July and August. The Summit Grill at the top serves a short menu and is the highest restaurant in Oregon. Wind holds and lightning will close the lift on short notice, so most regulars ride up early and plan around afternoon thunderstorms.