Hells Canyon, Oregon

Hells Canyon my camper in front of the mountain

Hells Canyon, OR
August 11-15, 2011

I drove another back road through the Oregon mountains and I took some pictures as I drove through the steep and winding mountains once again. I was able to stay on all paved roads however this time which is really good. I was still on the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, it really goes a long way and I have been on it for several days through Joseph, Wallowa Lake, etc. The landscape was mostly sagebrush and dry desert landscaping, every now and then there were some pine trees and a few farms. Frequently I see cattle ranches with large herds.

I passed through several small towns, usually they had only a few businesses such as a local general store. Not much else. I drove through a town called Halfway, not sure what it was halfway between there are different stories of what 2 towns it was between and one of the towns is now a ghost town, it was several miles and a while to Oxbow Canyon and dam, which is almost on the Oregon/Idaho border. In fact, I drove up a narrow back road near Oxbow and I saw a sign saying welcome to Idaho. I turned around and went back down the road to Oxbow.

Photos of Hell’s Canyon

In Oxbow I found a campground operated by Idaho Power. There was a nice lake, but also lots of families with children. I saw a sign for Hells Canyon Campground 6 miles, and I heard that Hells Canyon was beautiful, so I headed that way. I found the campground which is also operated by Idaho Power. It was a bit smaller than the other one, but I liked the layout better and there were campsites not far from the river, where campsites were along the road and there was no site across the road from me, so I thought this is perfect, probably more quiet. The campers are all parked parallel on both sides of the road. I got a spot under a large tree so I’m going to be shaded in the morning and until mid-afternoon. I will get some of the west sun, but as it gets lower in the sky, the tree across the road should provide some shade. Campsites had electric and water hookups, and it was $16 per night so I paid for 4 nights.

Snake River through Hells Canyon

Hells Canyon Campground

Since I had been driving over gravel washboard roads a two days ago my camper was dusty and dirty, so I washed it when I got my campsite settled I made dinner, and sat and read a book until it got dark. I went in an read some more until I got tired. When I got up this morning, Friday, I decided to actually cook breakfast. I made an omelet with spinach, sausage, and cheese, and cooked some homefries. It was really good, and I have extra to heat for breakfast tomorrow. Lunch will be the same thing I had for dinner last night, boneless spare ribs that I cooked on Tuesday, and some potato salad I bought at a grocery store yesterday.

I have to tell you, I sure miss Publix!!! The grocery stores I have seen are Albertsons and Safeway. I am familiar with both of these stores, but they don’t have the fresh breads like Publix does, I have to buy loaves of commercial bread when I need bread. Also, the meat seems to not always be cut fresh daily, evidently going by the dates on the packages. In fact, I was at Safeway about 10:30 a.m. Thursday and they only had a few packages of ground beef. I found the butcher and asked if he had more, he said he would sometime in the afternoon. I drove across the street to Albertsons, and the meat in the case looked like those tubes of meat and that doesn’t interest me. They did however have a fresh meat counter so I bought some ground beef and ground sausage.

An Idaho Power maintenance man drove by this morning and I asked him about a route I was planning on taking when I left here to go into Idaho. He agreed that it was the best route. He also asked if I drove 16 miles to Hells Canyon Dam and the Forestry Department Visitor Center. I said since I had only arrived late yesterday, I didn’t. He said since I am this close I need to drive there. After breakfast, I secured the stuff in my camper so it wouldn’t fly all over, hopefully. Sometimes it does even when I think it’s secure, especially on gravel roads. Anyway, I drove the very winding, curving, and sometimes steep road to the dam, then another 2 miles to the visitor center. It took about 45 minutes to go 18 miles, the speed limit is 20 MPH or 35 MPH if there is a straight portion of the road, which is not often. Upon arriving at the dam, I drove across it, it was one lane due to some construction equipment. On the other side of the dam, there was a SHARP right turn to go to the visitor center. Thankfully no one was coming the other way because to make the turn I had to start the turn, back up to get a better angle to turn. The road was very steep down, more than 10 degrees. The view was really beautiful and I found a place to pull over and take pictures.

Hells Canyon and Snake River

The visitor center was nothing special, just a small building. There was a jet boat tour for $75 to go on the river, but I heard it was full, and I didn’t really want to spend $75 for a boat ride anyway. After taking some pictures from the parking lot and lookout, I started back to the campground. When I got to the sharp turn to go back over the dam, there is no way I was able to make the turn, and I had to start the turn and backup twice carefully to make the turn. I don’t know how larger motor homes, trailers with boats, etc. make that turn. Anyway, thankfully there were not many cars on the roads when I was driving. I passed a spot where there was an adventure tour for charter area, and they had some wood bears in the parking lot that were really cute, so of course I had to stop and take a picture.

I have noticed the few times I have driven back on the same road as I went somewhere, especially when it many miles of driving, that the views are entirely different going in each direction and the drive back to the campground from Hells Canyon Dam was no exception. In fact, I think it was more spectacular driving back to the campground. Hells Canyon has the deepest canyon in the United States, it’s 1000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon, I was told, and the Snake River runs through the Canyon. Since there were no other cars on the road, I was able to stop and take pictures of the scenery, winding roads, and river which I posted in a photo album for you to see. As I am sitting outside my camper writing this article, I am looking at the river, and the tall mountain that is brown with some sagebrush, and a few scattered pine trees. The sky is blue with no clouds, and it’s in the 90s.

When I got back from my drive to the canyon, I ate lunch, wrote my stories so I could upload them when I get Internet access, then began to read a book. A man from the campsite across from me stopped by to see what I thought of the canyon since I had asked him earlier if it was worth the drive to see it and he told me it was. We discussed the canyon and how spectacular it was and about how nice the Snake River was. I said casually that I wish someone who had a boat would take me on a ride on the river. A short time later, he came over and said that he and his family and friends were going on his boat to kneeboard and pick blackberries and asked if I would like to go. I had no idea when I told him about wanting to go on a boat ride that he had a boat. Once again God granted my wish, what a gift!!!

Getting ready to kneeboard

The Carmichaels from LaGrand, OR, and the Millers from Fairfield, ID, and I had a great boat ride. They kneeboarded behind the boat while it ran up and down parts of the Snake River. Kneeboarding if you don’t know what it is, is kneeling on a board like a wakeboard and being towed behind the boat. It looked like fun, but I didn’t want to do it, thought it might be too much on my insides.

I saw abandoned mines on the side of the mountain, and learned about where the Snake River runs and more about the pioneers that came west from the midwest. It was very interesting and I am in awe of the people who ventured west during those harsh conditions.

Abandoned mine in mountain

After the kneeboarding, we pulled up along the bushes in the water on the riverbank and picked blackberries. Of course we had to eat some to be sure they tasted good, and they did. Eating them off the bush reminded me of when I was young and we lived in the country and picked blackberries from bushes on our property.

Picking blackberries

We were leaning over the side of the boat and reaching into the sticker bushes to pick the berries. We picked LOTS of them, and brought them back to the campsite where we washed them, pretty much one by one. We filled pans with water, then put berries in the pans and took them out, sorted them by ones for eating, and those too mushy which were put in a separate container for jams, to feed the carp, and of course to eat. The mushy ones would not last as long as the firmer berries, but they sure tasted sweeter and we enjoyed eating them.

Lots of fresh blackberries

I wished I had a big freezer to put them in for later down the road, but I was able to have a small container that fit in my little freezer so I could have them another time. I also have some to eat for the next few days that I put in the fridge. I thanked the Carmichaels and Millers for taking me with them and sharing the berries with me. Since it was then about 7:30 p.m. I went in my camper since I was tired, and I called my mom and told her about my day. I try to call her daily to let her know where I am and what I’m up to and to be sure she is okay.

Sunday someone at a campsite near me gave me some apricots that they picked at an old unattended orchard at a dry camp park down the road several miles. The apricots were about 1 inch in size and really tasted sweet.  About 9:30 p.m. I was out looking at the stars. The big dipper was just above the top of the mountain, about midnight when I looked out the window, all I could see of it was 1 star in the top of the handle.  When I was looking at the sky about 9:30 I saw a few meteors streaking across the sky, that was pretty cool.  It gets dark earlier here, about 8:30 p.m. it’s dark probably  because the mountains are so high. It’s really odd, all day the air is pretty still and there is no breeze. That changes about 6:30 p.m. when a northeasterly wind that is really strong suddenly appears and blows the trees, sand, etc. whatever it can and it lasts for hours.  It does cool off the air that was about 95 degrees during the heat of the day.

I will be at this campsite until Monday morning, then I will head into southwest Idaho towards Boise, then east. I mapped out a route through Idaho of places I think would be interesting to visit. I am also using the book someone gave me of 1000 off the beaten path places to see. I also modify my routes as I travel and talk to people who make suggestions. I’m looking forward to my next adventure. If anything else exciting or interesting happens when I am here for the next 2 days, I will let you know.

More photos in the photo gallery.

By the way, in case you are interested, between June 20th when I left Florida, and today, August 13th in Hells Canyon, OR, I have driven about 6,00 miles driving through 16 states.