July 5, 2013: Hells Canyon

Woke up a a cool sunny morning.  We spent the morning catching up on the internet.  We have no TV or phone reception, but quick and dependable internet....how'd they do that?

We drove 1/2 hour back down the twisty canyon road to the visitor center where we boarded a jet boat for a tour of the wild and rugged portion of the canyon.  No roads penetrate here for many miles, so boat travel is the only way to see the canyon.  We enjoyed rugged, gorgeous scenery along with thrilling class 4 and class 5 (maximum navigable rapid) rapids and the other folks on board were fun and interesting. 

One of the many rapids the captain had to negotiate



Snow melt creeks feeding the Snake River

We stopped for lunch at a sheep ranch/museum that had been in the canyon years ago.  Just enough flat space for a small garden, orchard and some hay production.  Can't imagine how lonely it would  have been.  Then, our guide told us he lives in a cabin on the river with no road access and his mail (along with his 7 neighbors spread out for miles along with river ) is delivered by boat once a month.  Those little red flags that come with our mailboxes just don't cut it, so they use red banners to alert the mailboat to stop and pick up outgoing mail.  The mailman must stay in the canyon over night to allow his customers to respond to the incoming mail and he picks up the responses the next day.
 

Mailbox on the river

 After 6 hours on the river, we returned to our same capsite exhausted.  A light dinner after the huge lunch they served and a relaxing evening made for one of our best days yet!