Hell's Canyon

After spending most of the morning cruising up the Snake River to Clarkston, WA and across the river Lewiston, ID, we stopped in Clarkston and boarded powerful jetboats for a 60 mile ride up the Snake River into the Hell's Canyon National Recreation Area. The geology and topography of the canyon are amazing. We had a chance to see the incredible basalt layers, which overlay very old and foreign rock types. On the biological side there was a chance to see great blue herons, cedar wax wings, canada geese, egrets, and for the mammal watchers Rocky Mountain big horn sheep. These sheep were reintroduced into the canyon after hunting and then later disease from domesticated sheep wiped them out. We had lunch at a forest service site along the Oregon side of the river while enjoying the views down the canyon. We then continued on up to the Nez Pierce Indian crossing at Dug Bar where we turned around and went back to Clarkston and boarded the Sea Lion for a nice evening tied up to the dock.