Hells Canyon (05-26-14)

Hells Canyon is the deepest gorge in North America, and its located on the Oregon/Idaho border. The Snake River, which we saw while in Yellowstone National Park, runs through the gorge and there are 3 dams in this small area.

 
 
 

 

  We drove out and checked out Hells Canyon Dam. The drive out there was beautiful and we were excited to see hundreds of great spots to pull over for an overnight stay.

 
 
 

Our plan was to double back and drive up to the canyon overlook, about 2 - 3 hours away, and look for a place to spend the night along the way,  but we got bad information from the ranger, who was apparently unaware that the road to the peak is closed in that direction. We had to drive the long way around, and ended up at Catherine Creek State Park in Oregon.

 
 




 
No worries though, we figured we’d just spend 2 nights in this area instead of 1. We had reservations at a park in Coeur D Alene Idaho starting Monday, but we moved it back to Tuesday. We have ordered parts to be shipped there (more about that in the next post).
 
 

By taking the long way around, we were able to stop at two museums. The first one is an interpretive center for the Oregon Trail, which passed by this way. Tens of Thousands of pioneers came through this way in the mid 1800s, looking for free land and a better life on the Oregon frontier.

I think its cool that you can still see the wagon ruts in the ground even though they are 150 years old.









The second museum is in the town of Joseph, a really cute town, named after Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perce Indian tribe. Joseph was a well respected leader who spent most of his life trying to negotiate for the return of his tribe to their homeland here in Oregon. The tribe had been involuntarily "moved" in 1877 after gold was discovered in this area. Sadly, he was unsuccessful.

We drove deeper and deeper into this side of the canyon, down a windy, dusty gravel road, looking for the road to the Overlook. Unfortunately I was reading the brochure as we were driving and realized that the road we are looking for doesn't even open for the season until June. You would have thought the Ranger would have mentioned that when we said we were headed there.

 



 
 
Plans thwarted again, we were headed back to the small town of Joseph when we pulled over for lunch, and made a terrible discovery. The seal on the back window has rotted away due to old age and the inside of the camper was covered with a thick coat of road dust. Yuck!!
 


 

  Thankfully, Joseph has a decent hardware store, and it was open on Memorial Day. We picked up the supplies we needed and headed for Wallowa Lake, our spot for the night.

Once there, Paul worked on re-sealing the window, and I cleaned the camper, from top to bottom.
 
 






 
 
One of the other items purchased at the hardware store was a new screwdriver. The little heater we brought with us died while we were in Carson City, and we had to hunt all over for a replacement. Its pretty much the wrong time of year to buy a heater. Finally, someone in a store suggested we head to Goodwill, the store that gets all the "broken box" items from Wal-Mart.  Sure enough, we found a cheap, small heater. When we tried to use it a few day later it made an awful rattling noise. Paul needed to take it apart to look inside, but didn't have an appropriate screwdriver. The heater doesn't rattle anymore but it also has a mind of its own and only seems to work when it wants to....so, the jury is out as to whether we keep it or look for another one.