Minam River Lodge
A lodge in the wilderness of Eastern Oregon, that is only accessible by foot, plane, or horse, AND has a chef that cooks fabulous food that highlights local and seasonal produce and meat? Yes, please!
Minam River Lodge, originally a hunting lodge that had fallen into disrepair, was rebuilt and reopened in 2017, and that was when I first heard about it. It’s located in a valley on the Minam River in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, which is in the far eastern corner of Oregon, and is accessible by an 8.5 mile hike or horseback ride (downhill all the way in and uphill all the way back out…) or a charter plane flight.
I decided 2020 was the year we would go, and in November, I booked 2 nights at the very end of June in one of the three wall tents.
In June 2020, the lodge opened on June 9 (normally the season starts around Memorial Day) as Oregon started to reopen from the the statewide stay-at-home order. It seemed like a remote wilderness lodge was just about the best option during the COVID pandemic. And so on a chilly, drizzly morning at the end of June, we headed to Cove, OR and then into the Wallow-Whitman National Forest to the Moss Springs Trailhead.
The trail to the lodge, which starts at above 5000’ and descends about 2000’ to the Minam River Valley, only opens around mid-June each year and we did see a tiny patch of snow at the top and a fair amount of mud at the beginning. Despite being 8.5 miles long, the trail was not too difficult, since it was downhill, after we got past the muddiest portions, and we arrived in about 4.5 hours.
The main lodge building is where all the meals are served and there are lodge rooms upstairs, and wall tents and cabins dispersed around the property. When we arrived, we had a quick tour and then went to our wall tent. It had just started raining seriously, during the last 30 minutes of our hike, so everything was starting to get damp. The temperature was in the 50’s, so it wasn’t very warm either, but luckily we had lots of blankets and were very comfortable in the tent.
Dinner is served at 6:00 and normally, there are long tables where everyone sits together and eats family style, but in 2020, there were additional tables set-up, and each group was separated.
Dinner started out really well with a colorful salad of first-of-the-season peaches, basil, fresh ricotta, and speck. It was followed by cauliflower, asparagus, and pork belly with cabbage.
Dessert was lemon custard with pickled rhubarb, and it was a nice tangy ending to a tasty dinner. And there was of course, wine and beer available from the bar.
The next morning, it was rainy, but there was still a pretty view over the valley and up into the misty hills.
Breakfast and lunch are more informal and have lighter or bigger selections. I opted for the light breakfast of yogurt, granola, and fruit. The heartier lunch option was elk chili and cornbread, which really hit the spot on the chilly, rainy day.
Something wonderful to do on a cold day, is go in the wood fired hot tub, which we thoroughly enjoyed. There is also a wood-fired sauna near the river.
There are multitudes of hiking options around the lodge, long and short. Our legs were tired from the 8.5 miles the day before and it was raining, so we took a short hike after lunch to Red’s Horse Ranch, about 1/2 mile away, in the Minam River Valley, the site of a former dude ranch now managed by the US Forest Service.
Dinner Monday night was once again at 6:00. We started with a green salad with pretty summer flowers and thinly sliced summer squash on the bottom. Ravioli stuffed with more of that fresh ricotta and broccoli, and roasted chicken. Dessert was chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream.
And then just before the sun went down, the rain stopped, and the sun almost came out…. And then it went away and it rained more, but it gave us a little hope that things would dry out.
It fortunately stopped raining by Tuesday morning and so we didn’t have to hike out in the rain, but none-the-less it was a very muddy 8.5 miles 5.5 hours slog up to the trail and back to the trailhead.
