Wallowas

We did manage to get in a trip to the Wallowas.  The thing that makes this place so beautiful is that once you get up into the lake basin in the mountains, you don't really see that much dirt, it's all granite rock.  So instead of seeing the green trees against brown, the rich green of the trees is contrasted against white.  The Forest colors look brilliant against the rock and occasionally you see giant  boulders littering a opening in the forest beside a lake, and it looks like the toppled over stones from an ancient, and to those with a taste for the fantastic, magical castle.  You can see what I mean.

The whole valley does have kinda a magical feeling to me, but the thing that
really made me feel that way was the stillness of the lake and our closeness to the
sky.  At night, we could see the stars reflected in the water.  At least that is what
I thought at first, then I realized that I was not seeing stars in the lake, but the
lights from the mermaid city under the lake shining up from it's depths!  

It was a most refreshing and rejuvenating trip.