Saturday, September 8, 2007

Approaching Hat Point Lookout, Hell's Canyon

From Enterprise, we headed toward the town of Joseph, OR where we turned onto the road toward the town of Imnaha, OR.

The road to Imnaha, OR

From Imnaha, the road turns from asphalt to dirt/gravel (I'm sensing a pattern here...) for the 24-mile trek up the mountain to Hat Point. The first five miles are a straight, no-switchback, 16% grade up the side of a mountain. On a narrow dirt road with no guardrail. We gained 5,000 feet in elevation over the course of the first five miles, and stopped at the Five-Mile Viewpoint.

View from Five-Mile Viewpoint.

From there, we go through a series of windy switchback-type road that's (thankfully) NOT right on the edge of the cliff, and then the road straightens back out and we travel mostly along the mountain plateau to the Horse Creek Overlook and then on to Granny View Vista.

Granny View Vista.

From Granny View Vista, it's a short drive back down a short distance into a valley and then back up to Hat Point.

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