SALT CREEK SUMMIT (WINTER)

WHERE:   Take I-84 to highway 82 east in La Grande.  Follow 82 east to Joseph where you will pick up the Wallowa Mountain Loop east.  Follow this road to a junction where the road splits with one fork going to Imnaha and the other signed to Salt Creek Summit (this is the Wallowa mountain loop).  This road terminates at the Salt Creek Summit Sno-park which has a bathroom and warming house.

THE AREA:  The sno-park is located at 6,100 feet elevation.  For snowshoeing I wouldn't bother following the trails as there is so much nice terrain to meander in.  I went down into the creek area where I found many tracks:  Lots of snowshoe hare and weasel tracks a few rodent tracks and a couple of cat tracks (bobcat or lynx most likely).  I even saw a what I thought to be a Pine Martin track though I am not an expert.  I saw one exciting set of tracks where I witnessed the fossil of a cat chasing a rabbit.  It was cool to see the stalking prints of the cat before it began chase then witness the arcs of both tracks as the cat tried to cut off the hare.  It looked like the hare got away as there was no sign of a catch.  There are some nice mountain views from this area also as you can see Aneroid peak and its neighbors from the sno-park and the creek basin.  If you cross country along a ridge to the southeast the seven devil's mountains just to the west of Hell's Canyon appear as magnificent mountain range to the distant east.