This day at Seriti River Lodge, a family of warthog frisks about on the front lawn. On Friday morning, I woke to find an elephant staring disinterestedly from behind protective fencing 20m away.

Minam River Lodge is a rare piece of private property within Oregon’s 360,000-acre Eagle Cap Wilderness, which itself is located within the 2.3 million-acre Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.