29 Best Sights in Eastern Oregon, Oregon

At more than 360,000 acres, this is the largest wilderness area in Oregon, encompassing most of the Wallowa range with 535 miles of trails for hardcore backpackers and horseback riders. Most of the popular trailheads are along Eagle Cap's northern edge, accessible from Enterprise or Joseph, but you also can find several trailheads 20 to 30 miles southeast of La Grande along Route 203. Some areas of the wilderness are accessible year-round, while the high-elevation areas are accessible only for a few months in summer. To hike into the wilderness, you also need to obtain a free permit that will alert rangers of your plans.

This ramshackle building operated by the state park system was a trading post on The Dalles Military Road in 1866 and 1867, then later served as a general store, a Chinese labor exchange for the area's mines, a doctor's shop, and an opium den. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum is an extraordinary testament to the early Chinese community in Oregon. Tours are on the hour with groups limited to eight people; if you miss it, you can always catch a 5- or 30-minute video at the interpretive center across the street.

This 90-minute tour transports you belowground and back through Pendleton's history of gambling, girls, and gold. The Underground Tours depict town life from more than a century ago (when 32 saloons and 18 brothels were operating in full swing) to the 1953 closure of the Cozy Rooms, the best-known bordello in town. The Underground Tour eventually resurfaces, climbing the "31 Steps to Heaven" to those Cozy Rooms where madam Stella Darby reigned. The secret gambling lairs, opium dens, and bathhouses that lie directly below the pavement will give you a whole new perspective of the streets of Pendleton. Reservations are required.

Pendleton's most significant source of name recognition in the country comes from this mill, home of the trademark wool plaid shirts and colorful woolen Indian blankets. This location is the company's blanket mill; there's also a weaving mill in the Columbia Gorge town of Washougal, Washington, near Portland and about three hours west of Pendleton. If you want to know more about the production process, the company gives 20-minute tours on weekdays at 11 am and 3 pm; reservations are suggested. The mill's retail store stocks blankets, towels, and clothing with good bargains on factory seconds in the back room.

Located at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino, this impressive 45,000-square-foot interpretive center depicts history from the perspective of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes (Tamástslikt means "interpret" in the Walla Walla native language). An art gallery showcases the work of local and regional tribal artists, and on Saturday in summer you can visit the adjacent Living Culture Village, Naami Nishaycht, and watch a variety of talks and demonstrations on everything from tepee building to traditional community games. There's also a museum gift shop, a theater showing a short film about the tribe's heritage, and a café.

This impressive gallery displays sculptures by the many artists who cast their work at the nearby foundry, plus quite a few international pieces. The foundry itself is a half mile away at 307 W. Alder St. Foundry tours are available weekdays by reservation.

On the south shore of beautiful Wallowa Lake, just a 10-minute drive south of downtown Joseph, this alpine park with a highly popular campground is surrounded on three sides by 9,000-foot-tall snowcapped mountains. Popular activities include fishing and powerboating on the lake, plus hiking wilderness trails, horseback riding, and canoeing. Nearby are a marina, bumper boats, miniature golf, and the tramway to the top of Mt. Howard.

This is a relatively easy way to take in the natural splendor of the Eagle Cap Wilderness and reach Baker City without backtracking to La Grande. The loop is a segment of the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, which continues for a three-and-a-half hour trip from Joseph to Baker City. It winds through the national forest and part of Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, passing over forested mountains, creeks, and rivers. Before you travel the byway, check with the Forest Service about road conditions; the route can be impassable when snowed over. From Joseph, take Highway 350 east for 8 miles, turn south onto Forest Service Road 39, and continue until it meets Highway 86, which winds past the town of Halfway and then continues to Baker City.

Forming a rugged U-shaped fortress between Hells Canyon on the Idaho border and the Blue Mountains, the Wallowas are sometimes called the Alps of Oregon or Little Switzerland. The granite peaks in this range are between 5,000 and 9,000 feet in height. Dotted with crystalline alpine lakes and meadows, rushing rivers, and thickly forested valleys that fall between the mountain ridges, the Wallowas have a grandeur that can take your breath away. Bighorn sheep, elk, deer, and mountain goats populate the area. Nearly all the trails in the Wallowa Mountains are at least partially contained within the Eagle Cap Wilderness. The offices and visitor center for the mountains are in Joseph at the Wallowa Mountains ranger office of Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, but you can access different parts of the range from different towns in the region, including Enterprise, La Grande, and Baker City.

The Baker Heritage Museum operates the nearby Adler House Museum, an 1889 Italianate house that was once home to an eccentric publishing magnate and philanthropist.

Located in a stately brick building that once housed the community's swimming pool, Baker's history center has one of the most impressive rock collections in the West. Assembled over a lifetime by a local amateur geologist, the Cavin-Warfel Collection includes thunder eggs, glowing phosphorescent rocks, and a 950-pound hunk of quartz. Other exhibits highlight pioneering, ranching, gold mining, and antique furniture.

The 48-million-year-old fossil beds in this small section have yielded the oldest remains in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The drive to the beds traverses forests of ponderosa pines and sparsely populated valleys along the John Day River before traveling through a landscape filled with spires and outcroppings that attest to the region's volcanic past. A short trail that runs between the two parking lots contains fossilized evidence of an ancient subtropical forest. Another trail climbs ½ mile from the second parking lot to the base of the Palisades, a series of abrupt, irregular cliffs created by ancient volcanic mud flows.

In the tiny town of Haines, several miles north of Baker City, this humble museum almost resembles an antiques store or flea market at first glance, and has 10,000 household, farming, mining, and pioneer artifacts. Kids enjoy the one-room schoolhouse, as well as the 100-plus antique dolls and teddy bears. On the grounds is the old Union Pacific depot, built in the 1880s and given to the museum when the railroad discontinued stops at Haines in 1962.

Eight miles south of Hermiston, just off Interstate 84, lies a little town at the intersection of the Oregon Trail and the transcontinental railroad. On the short walking tour of downtown, approximately an hour, mounted plaques tell the story of the town's historic buildings, including the Chinese House/ON&R Railroad Museum (now filled with railroad artifacts) and 10 sites on the National Register of Historic Places. Other draws include a fun pub, the Wheat and Barley, and a small winery, Sno Road, which occasionally offers live music performances.

This scenic 106-mile loop winds from Baker City through the Elkhorn Range of the Blue Mountains. Only white-bark pine can survive on the range's sharp ridges and peaks, which top 8,000 feet; spruce, larch, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pine thrive on the lower slopes. The route is well marked; start in Baker City on Highway 7, head west to Sumpter, turn onto County Road 24 toward Granite, turn north on Forest Road 73 and take that over Granite Pass and eventually by Anthony Lakes ski area to Haines, and then return to Baker City along U.S. 30.

Two miles south of John Day, Canyon City is a small town that feels as if it hasn't changed much since the Old West days. Memorabilia from the gold rush is on display at the town's small museum, along with Native American artifacts and antique musical instruments. Drop in at the neighboring pioneer jail, which the locals pilfered years ago from a nearby crumbling ghost town.

Most travelers take a scenic peek from the overlook on the 45-mile Wallowa Mountain Loop, which follows Forest Service Road 39 (part of the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway) from just east of Halfway on Route 86 to just east of Joseph on Route 350. At the junction of Forest Service Road 39 and Forest Service Road 3965, take the 6-mile round-trip spur to the 5,400-foot-high rim at Hells Canyon Overlook. This is the easiest way to get a glimpse of the canyon, but be aware that Forest Service Road 39 is open only during summer and early fall. During the late fall, winter, and spring the best way to experience Hells Canyon is to follow a slightly more out-of-the-way route along the Snake River just off the Wallowa Mountain Loop. Following Snake River Road north from Oxbow, the 60-mile round-trip route winds along the edge of Hells Canyon Reservoir on the Idaho side, crossing the Snake River at Hells Canyon Dam on the Oregon-Idaho border. Be sure you have a full tank before starting out, since there are no gas stations anywhere along the route.

This is the site of one of the largest elk herds in the United States, plus around 350 other species, including bald eagles, bighorn sheep, mule deer, white-tailed deer, black bears, bobcats, cougars, beavers, otters, and rattlesnakes. The peregrine falcon has also been reintroduced here. Part of the area was designated as Hells Canyon Wilderness, in parts of Oregon and Idaho, with the establishment of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in 1975. Additional acres were added as part of the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984, and the recreation area currently extends across more than 652,000 wild and rugged acres. Nine hundred miles of trails wind through the wilderness area, closed to all mechanized travel. If you want to visit the wilderness, it must be on foot, mountain bike, or horseback. Three of its rivers (the Snake, Imnaha, and Rapid) have been designated as Wild and Scenic. Environmental groups have proposed the creation of Hells Canyon National Park to better manage the area's critical habitat. You can access the canyon from several points—see the website for an overview map.

Trace the steps of Oregon Trail pioneers at this nature park in the Blue Mountains, where pine trees still bear the scars made by passing covered wagons more than 175 years ago. Signs along the various unpaved hiking trails highlight the history of the journey west.

The museum's collection spans the rodeo's history since 1910, with photographs—including glamorous glossies of prior Rodeo Queens and the Happy Canyon Princesses (all Native American)—as well as saddles, guns, and costumes. A taxidermied championship bronco named War Paint is the museum's cool, if slightly creepy, prize artifact.

The warm, wood-finished tasting room at Sno-Road Winery is a must-visit, offering sips of well-crafted Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, and Tempranillo as well as occasional music on Friday evenings. If a lot of the townsfolk seem to be wearing spandex, you're probably visiting in late February or early March, when riders in the annual Echo Red to Red mountain-bike race almost double the city's population.

Though the original track was scrapped in 1947, an all-volunteer workforce has rebuilt more than 7 miles of track on the railroad's original right-of-way. Today the train operates along a 5-mile route in Sumpter. The historic trains leave from the McEwen and Sumpter stations; check website for departure information and reservations. A few additional fall foliage runs and Christmas trains are offered in October and December respectively.

The fossils at the Painted Hills, a unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, date back about 33 million years, and reveal a climate that has become noticeably drier than that of Sheep Rock's era. The eroded buff-colored hills reveal striking red and green striations created by minerals in the clay. Come at dusk or just after it rains, when the colors are most vivid. If traveling in spring, the desert wildflowers are most intense between late April and early May. Take the steep, ¾-mile Carroll Rim Trail for a commanding view of the hills or sneak a peek from the parking lot at the trailhead, about 2 miles beyond the picnic area. A few Forest Service roads lead north toward the Spring Basin Wilderness and the town of Antelope, but these can only be managed safely by high-clearance vehicles and when dry.

The center serves as the area's primary visitor center, with a museum dedicated to the fossil beds, fossils on display, in-depth informational panels, handouts, and an orientation movie. Two miles north of the visitor center on Highway 19 is the impressive Blue Basin, a badlands canyon with sinuous blue-green spires. Winding through this basin is the ½-mile Island in Time Trail, where trailside exhibits explain the area's 28-million-year-old fossils. The 3-mile Blue Basin Overlook Trail loops around the rim of the canyon, yielding some splendid views. Blue Basin is a hike with a high effort-to-reward ratio, and in summer rangers lead interpretive jaunts—check for an updated schedule at visitor center.

Three rugged, secluded wilderness areas attract backpackers to this 1.4-million-acre forest: the Wenaha-Tucannon, the North Fork Umatilla, and the North Fork John Day. Umatilla is derived from a word in the indigenous Shahaptian language meaning "water rippling over sand," and the forest has its share of fishable rivers and streams as well. Home to the Blue Mountain Scenic Byway and 38 campgrounds, the diverse forestland is found both east and south of Pendleton, and extends south almost as far as John Day, where it borders the Malheur National Forest. To the east it is bordered by the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Major thoroughfares through the forest include Interstate 84, U.S. 395, and Highways 204 and 244.

More than just a cluster of produce tents, Joseph's Saturday farmers' markets are the social hub of the community. Grab groceries or treats from rows of veggie vendors, specialty-food producers, and sustainable-cattle ranchers, then hang around for live outdoor music and bronze-sculpture street art.

Joseph's history museum has a small but poignant collection of artifacts and photographs chronicling the flight of the Nez Percé, a series of battles against the U.S. Army that took place in the late 1870s. Built as a bank in 1888, the building was robbed in 1896, an event commemorated by a number of the museum's artifacts, including a massive old safe and some yellowing newspaper accounts.

The steepest tram in North America rises 3,700 feet in 15 minutes, rushing you up to the top of 8,150-foot Mt. Howard. Vistas of mountain peaks, forest, and Wallowa Lake far below will dazzle you, both on the way up and at the summit. Early and late in the season, 2½ miles of cross-country skiing trails await at the top, and the interpretive trails are open for hiking during the snowless months of midsummer, as are mountain-bike trails. A casual lunch is available at the Summit Grill, but keep in mind that it's more about the view than the sometimes uneven food and service.

The 2.3-million-acre forest, found both east and west of Baker City, ranges in elevation from 875 feet in the Hells Canyon Wilderness to 9,845 feet in the Eagle Cap Wilderness. There are two other wilderness areas: Monument Rock and North Fork John Day.