Here Horace Sykes stands on or near the rim of the east moraine that helps hold Wallowa Lake in a scoop that resembles a feeding trough - a collector for some of the runoff off the Wallowa Mountains in Northeast Oregon. First in the middle ground is some farm land nearby the town of Joseph, which is at the north end of the lake, and so to the left and out of the frame. The horizon is broken by the several peaks of The Seven Devils Range. They ascend directly and abruptly east of the Snake's Hells Canyon. On their far side is the Salmon River, which is pushed to the north by The Seven Devils - the river then circles or curves to the west around them until it joins the Snake River. Most of the Peaks in this range may have been named in one sitting and in sympathy with the canyon that they fall into to the west - Hells Canyon. The names teeter on the silly. The slightly taller ones are left-of-center, and named the He Devil and the She Devil. Both are a few feet higher than 9,400 feet. The drop to the Snake River is 8000 feet in Six miles. The Ogre is another high point left of center, and the highest of them right of center is the Devil's Throne. Other names in this range continue the facile theme. There is a Devil's Tooth, a Mt. Belial, the Twin Imps, a Carbonate Hill (at 8,107-feet, sort of high for a hill), a Purgatory Lake and somewhat off to the east a Horse Heaven. Also on the east side of these devils is the enchanting Idaho Highway No. 95. I rode it in 1964 aboard a streamlined post-war bus that resembled the Kalakala Ferry. The highway comes out of southern Idaho and for part of its climb to White Bird Pass, travels beside the Little Salmon River. Like the highways of California, the best time to drive #95 is in April or May when the landscape is green. Horace and his prospect are about 31 miles from the He Devil and about 2000 feet more to - and from - the She Devil. (Click to Enlarge)
