La Grande lies flat as a table in the middle of the Grande Ronde Valley, a wide bowl of farmland in north-eastern Oregon ringed by the Blue Mountains to the west and the Wallowas to the east. It is a railroad town of about thirteen thousand people, with a college, a brick downtown and a long, wide main street, and it feels more like Idaho or Montana than the rainy Oregon of the coast. Wheat, hay and cattle fill the valley, and the air is dry and clear.
The Oregon Trail came through here in the 1840s and 1850s. After weeks crossing the plains, emigrants descended the Blue Mountains into the valley, and many camped in the open grass before facing the Columbia and the Willamette beyond. The ruts of the wagons are still visible at an interpretive site on Blue Mountain, a few miles west of town, where you can walk among them. The name Grande Ronde, French for great round, is said to have come from trappers who saw the circular valley.
Your ride leaves the valley to the east, into the country of the Nez Perce, where Chief Joseph and his people lived before they were forced out in 1877. The road crosses the foothills into the Wallowa valley and continues toward Hells Canyon, the deepest river gorge in North America, a gash cut by the Snake River that drops almost eight thousand feet from the rim peaks to the water. The scenery shifts from farm fields to forest, then to dry canyon country, with a lot of curves and climbs and impressive views. Traffic is light, and the surface is mostly good, although winter frost can damage it.
La Grande has fuel, supermarkets and restaurants, so it is a sensible place to start. Beyond, supplies get thin, and the best strategy is to fill up in town and again at the larger villages. Summer days are hot and dry, with thunderstorms in the afternoon, while autumn brings cold nights and colourful larches in the high country. In winter, snow and ice can close the mountain passes, so check road conditions before you leave. Look out for deer and elk, particularly at dusk.