(Idaho to Oregon Coast)
The world around us became greener and greener as we drove through Idaho. Cool and sunny weather greeted us from the fabulous summit of Galena mentioned in my last blog entry, to Montana, still some 160 miles north. We were in the mountains however, and our daily temperatures were more comfortable now that we were not in the desert environment, perhaps 70’s or lower-and what was this precipitation falling from the clouds above mountains and along rivers? We encountered our first appreciable rain since leaving Florida!
SALMON RIVER
Passing alongside the swift moving Salmon River through the center of Idaho we were able to photograph one of the most popular tourist activities; the rafting trips. In bright colored rubber rafts all ages of tourist suited up in helmet and preserver, perched either in front or behind a single guide who manned the oars. I hoped these adventurous folks were wearing neoprene under the outside clothing because it was not apparent that people were really protected from such cold water, and people had said the river was running higher than normal.
The Sawtooth Mountains, a majestic sight of conifer green, were seen from rt. 75 as we started our trip for the day. We passed through the town of Challis and by the Yankee Fort Historic Area where mining operations are displayed as a museum. The Salmon River Scenic Byway, length of 162 miles, rt. 93 contains sights of the Salmon River and its forks, so important for the health and survival of wildlife and for the livelihood of people who live and work in these areas. (see river information below taken from www.rivers.gov/.
We drove through the margins of the Salmon –Challis National Forest in areas once the original home of the Nez Perce Indians. Indians still live throughout the area and are instrumental in providing the care and monitoring of the wild areas in conjunction with the National Park Service. The mountains of Montana were visible to the northeast and, we later discovered, provided a magnificent backdrop to modern life in the small area of Montana that we visited and camped.
The Salmon River was called the River of No Return when Lewis and Clark were sent to explore the West to discover a trading route to the Pacific Ocean, accomplishing their journey into the wilderness on river and horseback. Nez Perce and other Indians helped them on their journey by befriending the men and showing trails, providing food and carriers for the collections they would bring back to President Jefferson.
The area referred to in the following is shown on a map of the Nez Perce Historic Park and while traveling we had a paper copy in front of us.
“For countless generations, the Nimiipuu or Nez Perce have lived among the rivers, canyons and prairies of the inland northwest. Despite the cataclysmic change of the past two centuries, the Nez Perce are still here.” www.nps.gov/nepe See the Historic Park map here.
Along the Scenic Byway, the short, cold rain did not really interfere with our travel. Dan was happy to report that the faring and the form of the RT was quite protective, and we moved on enjoying the sight of rafts full of people floating on the Salmon and mastering the rapids. People also were salmon fishing for chinook. , trout fly fishing and running kayaks through the rocks and rapids in the freezing cold waters.
RAFTING
Dan and I, each in our own vehicle, excitedly pulled off to the side of the road to watch some rafters. Dan had been considering a raft trip himself and had just asked me what I thought about going on a guided trip, when we, along with a small group of spectators, saw the yellow raft lose two of its tourist riders! As you will see in the pictures, in a fast-running rapid filled with rocks and around a concrete abutment , two people fell out of the raft. The raft flew on without the people- who presumably were able to crawl out of the river and up the steps as we all stood wondering what the plan for rescue might be. We left without knowing how the rescue turned out, but pretty sure we would not be on the raft tour in the morning!
RIVERFRONT PROPERTY
We drove many curving miles along the river, seeing many different rafting groups, fishermen and women and started visiting the riverside campsites to see what they were like. All of the Salmon River Scenic Route National Park campsites had some sites bordering the swiftly moving water. Camping and outdoor activities like hunting, fishing and hiking were very popular pursuits. Camping areas were filled with smaller RVs, pop-up campers, lots of pick-up trucks and a few tents. Around the sites were families and lots of men with beards and flannel shirts Many folks looked like they had been in the camp and would be in the camp for a long time. I wondered if, when the kids get out of school, families spend their free time in the woods. It looked like that to me.
At “Three River Junction”, we found a nice campsite right on the river and the next day climbed a 4X4 road toward a waterfall we were told was “something to see.” The weather was good, the sights were amazing; we saw two different kinds of butterflies in huge, fluttering groups ahead of us on the road. In a few hours Dan picked up the bike at the campsite and headed to the main highway. Our plan was to use rt. 12 heading toward Oregon on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
MONTANA
We continued driving and stopping along the Salmon River, and soon, well 80 miles later, we crossed the border into MONTANA. After a two day tour into Montana, awestruck by the beauty of the mountains, and visit to the Les Metcalf - Bitterroot Wildlife Reserve. Parts of it were wet and flooded but the roads were open. It is spectacular! While there we saw many Osprey, some Yellow headed blackbirds, deer, turtles, colonies of ground squirrels . We enjoyed our extremely peaceful hours exploring the reserve and the excellent Visitors’ Center there.
LEWIS and CLARK
We had started building a campfire most nights. It was cold and buggy so smoke was necessary for awhile each night. Now that there was wood available, we had to think about the problem of dry kindling. Dan bought a hatchet as it was really necessary for splitting wood for camping. We then used the Lewis and Clark rt. 12 heading east and crossed the Lost Trail Pass, elevation 6995 ft., the name referring to historians’ lack of knowledge of exactly where Lewis and Clark’s expedition passed through.
RENEGE
Yikes! Now we were riding in the rain. We saw snow in the hills as the pictures show, six feet behind us in plowed piles- then more rain came as we drove on to the higher elevation Lolo Pass on the border of Idaho and Montana. We stopped into the visitor center at the summit and were again reminded of the sad fate of the Nez Pierce Indians and their champion Chief Joseph. The road that we had just travelled on was a forced march for eight hundred Indians in winter because the US Government broke a treaty with the Nez Perce when gold was found on their reservation. They were removed from the land and the land re-claimed to be distributed by the US Government. Read Chief Joseph’s speech on my pics.
Now winding down the mountain in the rain, unfortunately behind a RV dragging a boat, we made it to the commemorative twin towns of Lewiston and Clarkson and after spending the night in Clarkson , ID near the border of Washington State, we located a road a BMW rider in Montana told Dan about that would bring us through great mountain scenery on excellent, twisty roads. First was rt. 129 and then 3. We headed on toward Wallowa Lake and the town of Joseph. The old Chief Joseph was buried in this beautiful area in which he lived with his people. The young Chief Joseph was the Indian who spoke the words of surrender to the US Goverment. I wanted to stay in Joseph for a rodeo that was to happen on the weekend, but that was a few days away.
Hell's Canyon Wilderness
We moved on and took a ride through Hell's Canyon Road, Oregon, which had just been opened to traffic for the season. A campground we found in that wilderness area was unkempt because the Rangers had not yet opened it up meaning move the winter kill limbs, trim and rake out the campsites. We drove on a little farther; this was only one of the times when after losing Dan for a bit, being a slower driver, I happened to make a wrong turn down a narrow one lane road and couldn't turn the trailer around.
When I didn't show up, Dan retraced the route and with little difficulty, got me turned around and down to the campsite. We only had one other neighbor in the whole thirty site camping area and at night we were pleasantly surprised when a doe walked right into our area and browsed not five feet from our campfire. She had lovely big brown eyes and moved quietly, like a floating ghost. After direct eye contact with two startled campers, she just went along with her business in the light of our fire then disappeared as quietly as she had appeared. I think in season elk, deer, and bear hunting are allowed. Fishing I guess can be anytime.
In the morning it was off to Devil's Canyon Overlook and then Devil's Canyon Dam, thirty miles in off the main road and then out again, on great roads for Dan -twisties. Paved, but old surface so a little bumpy, but not too challenging for him or noisy for me with the Trailer.
Beside being bothered by the fate of the Nez Perce as I gazed on their lost land, a flashback to Edward Abbey's thoughts on dams; important but destructive to habitat, river and canyon. Here, on a Sunday on the way to Hell’s Canyon Dam on rt. 86, were many people recreating on the Snake River. There were even a few small sailboats, along with the cabin cruisers, fishermen before the dam and canoes, rafts and kayaks after. No swimmers yet way too cold. The informational signs decreed "water usage for all." Hell's Canyon dam is one of three dams in the 200 mile section of Snake River which does communicate with and so is part of the Columbia Watershed.
Near the town named after the famous fossil beds, John Day, we took a slight detour to see the Thomas Condon Paleontology Museum containing fossils that were found and dated in the John Day beds. The name John Day came from the name of a nearby river. "Thomas Condon, a missionary in the area in the 1860s recognised the value of the finds in the area to science. In 1899, John C. Merrill, University of California began to organize the finds into their geological, chronological, and paleoecological context. " The National Monument was established in 1975. The exhibits contain "40,000,000 years of the Age of Mammals, and visitors can watch researchers from aound the world do their work behind the viewing windows. The area consists of many sites that can be visited on the 20,000 square miles of exceptional fossil-yielding areas. Some sites have picnic facilities. It is unlawful to remove any rock from the study areas.
On rt. 26, then 126 to coast road 101, we headed for the Oregon Pacific coast at Florence
Some information that may be of interest copied from these two websites: http://www.rivers.gov/ and
www.nps.gov/nepe.
If you visit the websites, the sections on history and 38 sites to visit may be of interest. Dan and I traveled on the roads in Idaho, Montana, a bit of Washington and Oregon-Canada-then later at Yellowstone in Wyoming. There is a great deal of wilderness area to hike and explore that we did not do. The Nez Perce Trail is about 1200 miles. Most of it is contained within the protected NPS and is accessible by roads.
Bear Paw Battlefield (Montana Rockies)
On September 29, 1877 800 men women and children made camp on Snake Creek, forty miles from the Canadian Border. At dawn the next day, the U.S. Army attacked the camp, beginning a siege that would last until October 5, when Chief Joseph ended the siege. This quiet and compelling site is sacred ground for all who fought here and looks much the way it did in 1877. The Nez Perce National Historical Park consists of interconnected scenic roads providing access to 38 areas of historical, or spiritual significance to that tribe.
“Congress passed the National Trails System Act in 1968, establishing a framework for a nationwide system of scenic, recreational, and historic trails. The Nez Perce (Nimíipuu or Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail stretches from Wallowa Lake, Oregon, to the Bear Paw Battlefield near Chinook, Montana”.
The river areas in the center of Idaho to the area of Yellowstone Park to the southeast in Colorado and Wyoming, southwest to Oregon, northwest into Washington, north to Canada and northeast to the Nez Perce Reservation, Rocky Boy, are managed jointly by four agencies entrusted with their care. USDA Forest Service, USDI Bureau of Land Management, USDI National Park Service and USDI Fish and Wildlife Service.
Rivers are classified as wild, scenic, or recreational.
• Wild river areas — Those rivers or sections of rivers that are free of impoundments and generally inaccessible except by trail, with watersheds or shorelines essentially primitive and waters unpolluted. These represent vestiges of primitive America.
• Scenic river areas — Those rivers or sections of rivers that are free of impoundments, with shorelines or watersheds still largely primitive and shorelines largely undeveloped, but accessible in places by roads.
• Recreational river areas — Those rivers or sections of rivers that are readily accessible by road or railroad, that may have some development along their shorelines, and that may have undergone some impoundment or diversion in the past.
Regardless of classification, each river in the National System is administered with the goal of protecting and enhancing the values that caused it to be designated. Designation neither prohibits development nor gives the federal government control over private property. Recreation, agricultural practices, residential development, and other uses may continue. Protection of the river is provided through voluntary stewardship by landowners and river users and through regulation and programs of federal, state, local, or tribal governments. In most cases not all land within boundaries is, or will be, publicly owned, and the Act limits how much land the federal government is allowed to acquire from willing sellers. Visitors to these rivers are cautioned to be aware of and respect private property rights.
The Act purposefully strives to balance dam and other construction at appropriate sections of rivers with permanent protection for some of the country's most outstanding free-flowing rivers. To accomplish this, it prohibits federal support for actions such as the construction of dams or other instream activities that would harm the river's free-flowing condition, water quality, or outstanding resource values. However, designation does not affect existing water rights or the existing jurisdiction of states and the federal government over waters as determined by established principles of law.
As of July 2011, the National System protects 12,598 miles of 203 rivers in 38 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; this is a little more than one-quarter of one percent of the nation's rivers. By comparison, more than 75,000 large dams across the country have modified at least 600,000 miles, or about 17%, of American rivers
http://www.rivers.gov/
Enjoy green scenery slideshow from this part of the trip
click to open.
 |
| 12 Mt, Oregon, Joseph, Nez Pierce, Devil Canyon |
No comments:
Post a Comment