egetation in the Wallowa Mountains offers variety to please all senses and sensibilities from the dry sage country to treeless alpine tundra. In the lower elevations, you'll find a semi-arid climate with sagebrush, bunchgrass, and scattered pines. As you climb the lower slopes, you'll pass through the heavy timber of beautiful red-barked ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine that, as the name indicates, was a favorite timber among Native Americans for tent poles. Other tree species include douglas fir, spruce, and tamarack.
With perfect irony, you finally climb out of the forest above timberline into the Arctic-Alpine zone, having travelled from treeless sage plains to treeless tundra. And everywhere you'll find the deep blue of tarns and the luminous colors of mountain wildflowers.
