Taking the Tram to the Top
Northwest Return Travelog #10
Atop Mt. Howard, OR - Sat, 31 Jul 2021. 12:30pm.
"This would be a lot easier if they put in an escalator," I occasionally quip to passers-by on tough uphill hikes. Well, in a few places they have. ...Well, not literally an escalator, but an equally effort saving thing: a tram lift. There's a tram to the top of Mt. Howard above Wallowa Lake in northeastern Oregon, and that's where we went today.
The tram looks deceptively simply from the lower terminus. What you see in the photo above is only the lower one-third of the tramway. In total the tram ascends 3,700 vertical feet over a travel distance of 1.83 miles. It takes 15 minutes each way.
We bought our tickets and queued in line. The fee of $38 each seemed steep at first but it works out to about a dollar per 100 vertical feet not climbed. When I think of it in terms of, "Would I pay $1 to ride an escalator for the next 100' of ascent?" it's obvious why it's a good idea. Plus, unlike an escalator, we don't even have to stand. We got to sit in a nice little tram car for the ride.
The 15 minute ride is a lot of time for snapping pictures. I made use of it by snapping a lot of pics. 😅 Many of them turned out poorly, though, because of trees popping up in the way as the tram whisked through the forest. And all of them were marred by the ash-laden sky around us. Even so, the views were so inspiring that 15 minutes seemed to pass in more like 5-6. Then we alit from our cab and breathed in the... alas not fresh and clean... air atop Mt. Howard at elev. 8,150'.
From here we'll hike a loop trail a few miles around the top of the mountain. Stay tuned for more! Update: Views atop Mt. Howard.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/95811.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
Atop Mt. Howard, OR - Sat, 31 Jul 2021. 12:30pm.
"This would be a lot easier if they put in an escalator," I occasionally quip to passers-by on tough uphill hikes. Well, in a few places they have. ...Well, not literally an escalator, but an equally effort saving thing: a tram lift. There's a tram to the top of Mt. Howard above Wallowa Lake in northeastern Oregon, and that's where we went today.
The tram looks deceptively simply from the lower terminus. What you see in the photo above is only the lower one-third of the tramway. In total the tram ascends 3,700 vertical feet over a travel distance of 1.83 miles. It takes 15 minutes each way.
We bought our tickets and queued in line. The fee of $38 each seemed steep at first but it works out to about a dollar per 100 vertical feet not climbed. When I think of it in terms of, "Would I pay $1 to ride an escalator for the next 100' of ascent?" it's obvious why it's a good idea. Plus, unlike an escalator, we don't even have to stand. We got to sit in a nice little tram car for the ride.
The 15 minute ride is a lot of time for snapping pictures. I made use of it by snapping a lot of pics. 😅 Many of them turned out poorly, though, because of trees popping up in the way as the tram whisked through the forest. And all of them were marred by the ash-laden sky around us. Even so, the views were so inspiring that 15 minutes seemed to pass in more like 5-6. Then we alit from our cab and breathed in the... alas not fresh and clean... air atop Mt. Howard at elev. 8,150'.
From here we'll hike a loop trail a few miles around the top of the mountain. Stay tuned for more! Update: Views atop Mt. Howard.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/95811.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]