When Lee's cousin called us up early this spring and asked if we wanted to join them on a three-day river trip through Hells Canyon, we said "yes' on the spot! We were super stoked to get invited and couldn't wait for July to come.  The stretch of the Snake River that we rafted passed through is the "Wild" part of the "Wild and Scenic" Snake River in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.  Believe it or not, Hells Canyon is the deepest canyon in North America (yes, deeper than the Grand Canyon) and definitely hot! Neither of us had ever been on this stretch of the river and we loved every minute! We were fortunate that Lee's cousin's wife pulled the permit and that we got to be two of the 24 people party.

Lee's cousin, Dennis (and his childhood BFF), had all the hook ups! Their really good friend and his wife had all the boats, access to all the coolers we could ever need and did ALL the prep.  I know what it's like to plan food for a group of 18 for a weekend in Yosemite. But, 24 people for 3 days on the river is another story. That is A LOT of work and I can't believe they did that for us.   I guess this is something they do every summer and enjoy it, but that doesn't reduce how much work it requires.  We totally scored.

The crew of 24 (included three of Lee's cousins and their wives) met up early on a Wednesday morning, loaded up all the gear and drove up to Hells Canyon Dam.  By the time we got there, got the rafts aired and packed up, it was mid-afternoon before we put in.  While we were getting situated we watched a bear across the river take his salmon lunch up the hillside.   And then within our first hour on the river we watched another one.  It was pretty cool to see them both, but I was quite content with the fact that we never saw them any closer or at our campsites.

We rafted somewhere from 10 - 13 miles that first afternoon.  Those miles included the biggest rapids of the three days we were out there.  The first was Wild Sheep Rapids -- super fun.  The second was Granite Rapids or the "Green Room".  Under certain conditions the drop gets up to 30 feet.  But from the approach, you'd never know.   Before each rapid, we sent out the scouts to check out which way we should tackle the rapid.  Lee and I joined those who went to scout out Granite.  I'm so glad we did.  We stayed up and there took pictures of each boat going through it.  We got some good ones.   And of the 6 boats that we watched go through Granite, two of them flipped.  Both of them were oar boats laden with gear and people.  The two paddle boats rocked it, as did the cat and one other oar boat.   It was crazy.   Then, it was our turn.  We had the misfortune of having a very small and light cat hooked to the back of our raft -- it nearly caused us to flip.  Dennis approached the rapid perfectly, and just as he was getting ready to turn us into the drop, the cat caught the current, drifted out in front of us and Dennis couldn't turn the boat.  Instead we entered it perfectly sideways.  The side of the boat that was down river flipped up and we were essentially vertical.  We all expected to flip.  Fortunately, the vertical side slapped back down and we continued through the rapid sideways.  But at the time the boat returned to the water, the cat flew up and over our boat and returned to the rear of the boat.  It was crazy!  And SO much fun!

We camped that night at an awesome spot.  And by the time our tent was up, our amazing hosts had the most unbelievable dinner hot and ready.  We're talking BBQ'd tri tip and chicken, pasta salad, watermelon and red velvet cheesecake.  And when we arose in the morning, breakfast burritos were already waiting for us.  I kid you not, we didn't do a darn thing but wash our own dishes.  It was pretty incredible.

The second day was a full day on the river.  I think we traveled about the same distance as the first day, but got started a little earlier.  After sleeping in, a tasty breakfast, and fun on the inflatable paddle board, we packed up and headed back down the river.  We didn't have rapids like Granite or Wild Sheep, but we still had several good sized ones that tossed nearly half our crew into the water at least once.  We visited an old homestead, ate lunch at one of them, swam in a freezing cold stream and jumped off Sturgeon Rock.  It was pretty awesome.    Our campsite that night was also pretty great - wild blackberries were everywhere.  Dinner that night was smoked, pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, cantaloupe, ice cream and apple pie.  The coolers these guys had were amazing - ice cream after two days of 100 + degrees.

Our last day was a short one.  We filled ourselves with breakfast burritos and then were back on the river.  Our longest stop was at Kirkwood Historic Ranch where we got out and explored the surrounding area.  I couldn't believe that people actually farmed that terrain at one point.   Both Lee and I tried our hand at the little catamaran the last couple of days.  It was pretty fun, but I need to beef up my arm muscles.   And while Dennis finished the river on the paddle board (little rapids and all), Lee manned the raft.  Pittsburgh Landing and the end of the trip came far too quickly.  I could have spent a week out there!

The trip was awesome.  Everyone who went was great.  The scenery was beautiful and the river so much fun.  I loved getting to know Lee's cousins and Lee loved being able to reconnect with them.  It was fabulous! We told them they could throw our names in to get a permit any time.  We'd love to go back.

We took several pictures that are posted to our gallery.