La Grande, Oregon (Baker City, Umatilla, Wallowa: appointed, ski resort, apartments)

[EveryApril]

Hello everyone,
So I'm hoping some of you could help me out. I'm looking to attend Eastern Oregon University and need information on the area. Just a few questions I have:

1) Is it very desert like? Is the sun always blazing down on you? I'm from Florida and i know it gets hot here but not to the extreme, so maybe some input on general weather conditions.

2) How different is the eastern side from the west? Even though I've never been to Oregon I have been to Seattle. Loved the people, the weather and overall feel. Are folks different on the eastern side? More accepting? Less?

3) Activities? Is there say a downtown area? Fun things to do?

4) Any other general information that can be provided is greatly appreciated.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

The weather is awesome. Four true seasons. Dry air, so it doesn't feel as hot as it may seem in the summer. Lots of outdoor activities!! There is a quaint downtown area, but it is a small town. Myself, I think it's one of the 5 best places to live in Oregon.

[dachmom]

I attended Eastern many years ago when it was called Eastern Oregon State College. If you like small towns, it's a nice area. I loved it by the way. There are no greeks (frats or soroities) at Eastern, which I really liked. There is not much downtown because it's a small town, there is(or was I haven't been there in a couple years) a movie theatre, JC Penny's and other small locally owned stores. A lot of the students worked at the Safeway store. Yes it is considered "dry" and it does get hot in the summer, but most places have air conditioning. It's not "unbearable" for a long period of time. Being at a higher elevation it is colder at night and it does snow in the winter. I liked the school because you had smaller classes which meant you could interact with the professors more.
LaGrande like a lot of eastern Oregon towns, is a farming community and therefore more conservative as a general rule. There are some nice places to drive to from LaGrande such as Wallowa Lake which has a tram (open May-September)you can ride to the top and feed the squirrels, and the view is awesome!
Good Luck and GO Mountaineers!

[WorkinStiff]

If you like the out of doors, it's heaven; camping, hiking, skiing, fishing etc...If your looking for big city nightlife, it's barren, but your not gonna want to be in a big city over the next few years....It's a great small town in a pretty valley, a good place to ride out the coming economic & social disruptions and chaos....

[karlsch]

I live in Baker City which is 38 miles from La Grande, so I can answer some of your questions.

This part of Oregon is the “high desert.” It is nothing like the Mojave, the Gobi, or the Sahara. The sun does not beat down on you for hour after hour. Precipitation is about 13 inches per year. There is sagebrush and a lot of mountains. It looks like something you have probably seen in old cowboy movies. In fact, you will occasionally see cowboys and cowgirls in town because the main “industry” in this part of Oregon is ranching.

You will have some hot days in the summer with low humidity, but it always cools down at night – a lot. The heat probably won’t bother you as much as the heat in Florida. It does get cold in the winter. There may be a few days when it gets down to near zero. The winters here are usually fairly sunny with occasional snow instead of the constant drizzle that is common in Western Oregon and Washington.

I have also lived in the Willamette Valley in Western Oregon. In my opinion, the people here are friendlier and much more helpful than those in Western Oregon. When you first move here from an urban area it can even be a little disconcerting.

Liberals often warn that the people here are “conservative.” I have never found that to be a problem at all. Some people think that all rural towns are like the ones they saw in the movie “Deliverance.” Eastern Oregon towns are nothing like that, not even close. You won’t see any banjo savants sitting on front porches in La Grande.

As dachmom mentioned, La Grande has a downtown. There is now a Wal-Mart Supercenter outside of town. If you are into high fashion, La Grande is not the place for you.

As WorkinStiff said, if you like the outdoors, this part of Oregon is heaven. One example:
Wallowa-Whitman Recreation Main Page
Another example, you can even take a bus to go skiing in the winter:
Ski Anthony Lakes : Anthony Lakes Ski Resort
But if you have to have big city entertainment, you will be disappointed.

I don’t know many details about Eastern Oregon University. Somebody else might be able to help you with that.

[Terryj]

La Grande is nice small Northeastern Oregon town, is sits on the eastern slope of the Blue Mt. Lot of farms and ranches around the area. If you like the outdoors there is allot of things to occupy your time all within a couple of hours drive. The Wallowa Mts. are to the east and there is Hells Canyon to the east also, it is the deepest canyon in the Northern Hemisphere. Allot of the towns in this part of Oregon were settled during the Oregon trail migration, so there is allot of history to these towns.

[EveryApril]

Thanks everyone who answered so far,
so I guess I got the wrong impression about the weather.. four seasons huh? Thats awesome. I do know it's a small town and I don't mind that at all.. Another question I forgot to ask is if it's relativly safe. If I go I'll be moving there by myself and want to know if I'm taking a stroll late at night would I have to keep looking over my shoulder?

Also is the town small enough that I wouldn't need a car? Or are place spread out?

[dachmom]

I can't tell you about crime since it's been years since I lived there, but it was safe at that time. I would say yes, you need a car. I attended Eastern and lived in the dorms without a car. You can easily walk to downtown, but if you want to go to Albertsons, etc. you need a car. I was usually able to get a ride with one of my friends who had a car, but I always felt guilty imposing on them to take me somewhere. Plus, those wacky 5-way (still trying to figure that one out) stops just aren't the same on foot.

I really enjoyed my time at Eastern, it's a nice small college where you feel at home, not lost in a crowd like some major universities.

[teacups]

I've lived in La Grande 7 years now, and I'm about 2 blocks from the College, btw. I'd say it's ridiculously safe. And people DO walk and ride bikes a lot here. About the most obnoxious "crimes" we have are auto-pilfers. And bikes get stolen. But the hard core stuff, rape, murders... not here. We don't have the massive drugs problem like Umatilla county over the mountains to the west of here. It's very serene. The college here is a major source of local economy, and they want to keep it as safe as possible. It's a priority.

[teacups]

oh, and YES-- need a car. Although since they've moved Safeway, the college, dorms & apartments and grocery store are all close together, but everything else is "must drive"