Deeper Into Hells Canyon!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Monday we left our great boondocking spot on the Snake River, drove back up the gravel road on the Oregon side and crossed over to Idaho at Oxbow. Then we drove the paved road 22 miles north to the end at Hells Canyon Dam. From that point north the river flows unimpeded through the canyon walls, instead of being dammed up into a reservoir. We were hoping to get a taste of the dramatic canyon walls, and we did! Here was the rugged Hells Canyon we read about. The float trips and jet boats head downriver from here. After saying we wouldn't blow our budget on a jet boat trip, we were sorely tempted, but since it was September, the Monday afternoon tour was not running. Money saved, but adventure missed.

Looking Down Hells Canyon Reservoir toward the dam

The raft launch below the dam

Looking up at the lower side of the dam

After a short stop at the visitor center to see a good film on the geology of the region, we drove south again to Oxbow, and began to head west across Oregon.


Greg's commentary on Hells Canyon – It is surprising that the deepest canyon in the US is so little known or so hard to get to. The Snake River cut the canyon with a huge assist from the flood waters overflowing from glacial Lake Bonneville, of which the Great Salt Lake is a tiny remnant. Where we were camped along Hells Canyon Reservoir, the river had cut down through about 4,000 feet of Columbia Flood Basalt, which was erupted about 15 million years ago. Much of that downcutting occurred during and since the glacial floods about 15,000 years ago. Tectonic uplift has raised the country surrounding Hells Canyon as fast as the River could cut down, resulting in a canyon exceeding 6,00 feet deep downstream of Hells Canyon Dam.

Hells Canyon cuts through thousands of feet of Columbia Flood Basalts with individual lava flows ranging from about 10 feet thick to over 100 feet.

Fancy houseboat docked at a private inholding with generator shed and irrigation for the orchard and lawn.

The rest of the hot day found us heading towards the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. We stopped for the night at Phillips Lake, a reservoir on the Powder River west of Baker City, at a big forest service campground, Union Creek, on a very depleted lake. The campground was not crowded and it finally cooled down at night.