After a
somewhat slower start today, it feeling very good to be off the road for a day,
I and another of our camping party decided to see if we could get in on the jet
boat ride up Hell’s Canyon. John drove down to the marina where we found a gal
signing people up and asked her if there was room for two more. We were
walk-ons and there was room for us, so we paid the $111 and took our seats. I
had read about Hell’s Canyon and the Snake River and the boat rides a long time
ago but I never thought I’d have a chance to actually do it. Boy, was it worth
it!
We took the
half day cruise which included several stops and lunch. It left the dock at
10:00 in the morning and we pulled back into the dock at 5:00 in the afternoon.
That’s a long half day.
The boat was
being driven this day by the owner of the business, a gentleman of 64 who’s
been on the river for many years. He gave us a narrated tour that included
geology, history, natural history and personal anecdote. He used a sound system
and was easy to hear. The boat itself was made of welded aluminum and was
constructed locally by one of the ten shops that specialize in these boats. It
had seating for 21, although we only had 17 on this cruise. Fully loaded it had
a draft of 10”. It was powered by three engines, had three pumps and nozzles,
and had 900 horsepower. What a hot rod.
We stopped
at a camp leased by the excursion company for our lunch break. But camp doesn’t
describe this place. It is a ranch with a house and barns that was taken over
by the Forest Service and then leased on a long term basis. I has a full time
staff that helps the cruise customers in the summer and the fishermen in the
fall. It has an orchard with apples and apricots and a large stand of blackberry
bushes. It has its’ own hydropower station and satellite internet. And it has its’
own herd of mule deer and flock of turkeys, which are plenty wild but somewhat approachable
if you’re still.
A Rocky Mountain sheep
We saw
unique basaltic volcanic formations. We saw animals: deer, turkeys, osprey, and Rocky Mountain
bighorn sheep. We saw boaters and fishermen and state wildlife researchers.
There are
chinook salmon and steelhead trout in season and a land locked population of
sturgeon. That’s what the researchers were studying. You can fish for sturgeon
but it’s strictly catch and release.
We saw petroglyphs
carved into the rock eons ago.
We went 59
miles upriver, which is to say south. The river starts out as a reservoir
because the Snake River has multiple dams along its’ course for hydropower. As
we left the flat water of the reservoir we encountered more and more rapids,
some with long series of standing waves of about 4’. On the day of our trip,
the Salmon River, which empties into the Snake, was flowing 9,000 gallons per
minute (gpm) while the Snake River was flowing 30,000 gpm. The water level was
relatively low for this time of the year, which brought several large rocks
into our path. The captain skillfully steered the boat through the rapids and,
while thrilling, it was never dangerous.
Just as it
has been in camp and on the road, the temperature on the river was hot, around
100 degrees. We were given all the cold water and soda we could handle and
urged to stay hydrated. The air off the canyon walls was blast furnace hot and
we only occasionally got some cool. But, we had the opportunity to go swimming
at least three times along the way in the 71 degree water.
By the end
of the day we were tired out but carried away a memory that will last a
lifetime.
I don't think the video loaded but I wanted to get this posted while I could. I'll keep trying with the video as time permits.
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