We already thought from the – you know – name of the place, that it might be hot near Hells Canyon. And it was. The high on the only full day we were there was 105. However, we were told that in the days up until we arrived, the temperatures hit 120. We were lucky. Heh heh.

In truth, we stayed in Clarkston, Washington, across from Lewiston, Idaho. (Everything’s named after these guys out here.) This was one of the places we decided to let Chris have time to work. There was a nice, air conditioned, and empty work room at our campsite. Although our trailer is air conditioned, it can’t quite get the RV cooler than 85 degrees in excessive heat with no tree cover. Lucky for the kids, they were already over their mild versions of Chris’ cold so they were up for any activity I felt we could safely do (in Covid-era). The choice was fairly easy. At the docks a few yards from our site, there was a jet boat company who did tours of Hells Canyon with lunch included.

The company we chose for our adventure was called Snakedancer. I wish I remember our guide and his co-worker’s name because they were fantastic. We traveled up the Snake River, which started with denser homes along a wide green-brown river and low-slung cliffs that very quickly gave way to outcroppings of a handful of water-side homes only reachable by boat or – in rare instances – from dirt roads that disappeared over much higher cliffs. The latter houses were mostly off-grid with water tanks above them, generators kept in buildings that looked like outhouses, and with mail arriving via a boat once a week on Wednesdays.

The river was crowded with July 3^rd revelers taking journeys upstream to stop on their own stretch of any number of beaches that were exposed along the river due to the low water levels. They set up little day camps and were swimming, boating, and floating on the waters edge as we zoomed by. Leaving commentary around this aside, I’m going to just note that greater than half of the homes and boats we saw in the more remote areas had Trump signs flying on them.

There were plenty of wild animals to see along the river, like bald eagles, mountain rams and elk. We also saw an abandoned mining operation. At the confluence with the Salmon River, the source of the brown in the water was revealed. It was pouring out of the Salmon, also known as the River of No Return, because any supply boats that traveled this river could never make the return trip on the rapids without suffering too much damage. Our guide said that somewhere up the Salmon there might have been a mudslide. Past this point, the Snake River was a pretty deep green-blue color.

Around lunchtime we hit the US National Forest’s Cache Creek Ranch in Oregon, just past the border with Washington. Idaho was still on the opposite shore. Any boats travelling past this point are required to pull over to the dock and get their Hells Canyon permits checked. We stopped long enough to eat a delicious lunch that the tour company provided and had a lovely conversation with some fellow travelers from Northern California. Then we got into the boats and continued up-river until we reached Dug Bar, at which point we turned around. This area had a pretty heart-breaking indigenous people’s history: https://www.nps.gov/nepe/learn/historyculture/dug-bar-history.htm.

On the way back, we were able to see more wildlife at the water’s edge. At one point, we pulled off to the side of the river and went swimming. Matthew and Izzy were the first to ask if they could dive off the back of the boat, since the drop-off to deep water was pretty steep and it was relatively safe. After we loaded back onto the boat, we also encountered some multi-day raft tourists and kayakers. It was interesting to see how all of the boats, including ours, were careful to avoid creating wakes anywhere near non-motor boats and swimmers. Only once did we see a boat exhibiting poor water safety where smaller craft were concerned. Otherwise, despite it being a fairly crowded day, everyone co-existed well on the river. Finally, our guide pulled us up alongside some rocks with petroglyphs dating back thousands of years, situated near a ranch run by the Nature Conservancy. By this point, both kids were wiped and one was napping on my lap. (And if you have a teen you’ll know how absolutely precious this moment was to me.)

We got back in the afternoon and caught up with Chris on our days. Then we took a little drive to show him some of the scenery we enjoyed along the river, while eating carry-out dinner.