No matter how much I love the challenge of climbing a mountain — that primordial test of trudging thousands of feet uphill — there's something darkly satisfying about cheating your way to the summit.

From mid May to the first of October, getting to the top of Mount Howard at 8,200 feet in the Wallowa Mountains is not quite the arduous trek it could be. To reach the top of Mount Howard, one needs ...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Portland State University professor has just done something no one else has done before, and few people have even attempted. He’s climbed all the major peaks in Easter Oregon ...

Step off the Wallowa Lake Tramway and onto the trails near 8,250-foot Mt. Howard at the edge of northeastern Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness, and you’ll quickly max out an SD card on your digital camera ...

The Wallowa mountains of Oregon also merit a place on that list. Situated in the extreme northeastern corner of the state, about 200 miles south of Spokane, the Wallowas are known by some as the “Alps ...

For a less crowded entry portal into Oregon's Eagle Cap Wilderness Area, and for a higher start from down on Wallowa Lake, consider driving to the east side of the Wallowa Mountains and using the ...

I'm about 300 miles east of where I was when last we met. I have left the gardenesque Pacific Northwest behind. I'm now in the Wallowa Mountains of eastern Oregon, where the rolling hills and valleys ...

JOSEPH, Ore. — We explore a corner of the state where scenery takes the breath away and you must peddle to enjoy the views of the Wallowa Mountains, Oregon’s Swiss Alps of the West. Not long ago, we ...

BAKER CITY — There was a big problem on the trail at BC Creek, on the edge of the Eagle Cap Wilderness near Wallowa Lake. Fortunately the solution was standing right beside the fast-flowing mountain ...

ENTERPRISE — A herd of free-roaming bison graze on a south-facing slope near a craggy granite spine called Cougar Ridge, their shaggy presence a pleasant diversion for some Wallowa County residents, ...