The Wallowa Valley is one of my favorite places not least because it was the home of one of the people from history that I admire most. Chief Joseph and his band of Nez Perce lived in the spectacularly beautiful Wallowa Valley with its towering mountains and dazzling blue glacial lake. Not lost on me is the outrageous irony that he was personna non grata there and was never allowed to return but they named a town after him. Kind of like a beautiful meadow being covered in asphalt for a shopping mall to be named The Meadows.