Hell's Canyon

 

Tuesday, September 20

Staring our third week on the road today. 

It started with another lovely sunny morning and breakfast at Michael D’s.  

Coeur d’ Alene is much larger than we had expected. The waterfront area is nicely developed with a city park, beach and a pier.  There are some lovely homes and hotels along the lake as well as some fun looking buildings and many little shops along Sherman St.

tours

pier

covered marina

road we were on

We went back to pack up our tent and head to Hell’s Canyon in eastern Oregon (hope John doesn’t decide it would be a good home for me).

We went down rt 95 to Lewiston, Idaho and back to the wide open spaces. It was a CRAZY ride into Lewiston and back out again over windy switch backs and up and down mountains.  Lewiston sits in the valley between the mountains.  We crossed over into Washington on rt 129 south and then into Oregon.  Route 129 south led us into some of the most challenging road ways (curves, switchback, cliffs) through a canyon with some of the most beautiful scenery we have seen.

                                                                                                                                    

The mountains in this area had ridges that looked soft like a young deer’s new antlers.  ( I don't know why but that was my thought upon first seeing these mountains)    

That is not a river ~ it is the road we were driving on

our attempt at setting the timer on the camera

We met some more animals on the road but   
still not what John was looking for.

 And at the bottom of this mountain pass was this lone farm appearing to be in the middle of nowhere.  It didn't look like fruitful land to us but what do we know about farming?









We arrived in Joseph, Oregon  which was a neat little town with a western feel.    
                         

Joseph is one of the entry points to the Hells Canyon area so we went to the Forest Service there to get some information about the canyon and camping in the area.  Then we headed out on the 40 mile drive to the Hell’s Canyon overlook.  Well, the 40 miles took us 1 ½ hours of narrow, windy, cow laden roads with sharp drop offs and no guard rails. 

don't even think about it

The lookout was beautiful.  Hell’s Canyon is the deepest canyon in North America at 1 ½ miles deep and 10 miles wide at the widest point.

Rather than trying to negotiate that road in the

dark we decided to camp near the lookout.           

As we said we were 1 ½ hours back into the 

woods so we were happy to see other campers

 there; five of us all together. This is really car side camping since nothing can be left out side that might attract wild life.     

        

It was a pretty 

campsite with a river running right along our site. 

These were unmanaged camping areas meaning no one to check us in.  We filled out the paper work, put the $8.00 in the envelope and put it in the box.  It also means there were no flush toilets, (never mind showers) only vault toilets ~ guess that’s the new or politically correct way to say pit toilets now days.  It also meant there was nowhere to buy fire wood and with bow season active and many hunters in the woods,  we didn’t think it was a good idea to wander around looking for wood.  Consequently, at 7:30 when it was pitch black and getting colder, we went to bed!