Day 29: Hells Canyon

This marked the first day of my fifth week on the road and I celebrated by going to Hell. After I had breakfast.

I love cooking outside under the awning, mostly because the bacon grease doesn't splatter the inside of the trailer. Also, sitting outside in this weather with my morning coffee just seems right. So after lazing around for a couple of hours sorting papers and trying to get my life organized, I stopped for a cup of coffee at Nicole's Canyon House in White Bird and headed across the mountains into Hells Canyon.

The first thing to understand is that it's not possessive. It's not a canyon belonging to hell, but a canyon of many hells. Not the least of which is getting into it. Deer Creek Road travels up fourteen miles from White Bird gaining 1500 feet in elevation. It's narrow and twisty and took me easily twice as long to reach the top of the pass. I'm thankful the pass is only about 3100 feet as the surrounding mountains are over 7,000 feet. I won't overwhelm you with a hundred pictures (I didn't take that many) but some of the views on the way up to the pass were so stunning and moving that I wiped occasional tears from my eyes. The eastern side of the pass is simply beyond words.

Then after the pass there is the descent of 2000 feet in three miles. My poor truck was kept in first gear most of the time as we crept down the road. The mountains on the Oregon side of the canyon are over 8000 feet, making the 1100 foot elevation of the river the deepest gorge in the country. On this side, however, the best view is from the top.

It was a steep, but faster trip out of the gorge than into it. This time when I started down the "gentler" slope on the eastern side of the pass, I was paced by a doe and two fawns for nearly half a mile before they finally stopped and froze so I could take their picture. I think she just wanted a place where she could show off unobstructed.

There's an odd thing about the time zones here. White Bird, where I'm staying is still in the Pacific Time Zone. But Hells Canyon for some reason unknown to me is in the Mountain Time Zone, even though it is west of White Bird. South of me, I'll switch to Mountain Time for the rest of Idaho. The thing is that the cell tower that my phone gets its time from is on the east side of U.S. 95, so my 6:30 alarm rings at 5:30 a.m. in White Bird.

I rose before the alarm this morning (5:00 a.m.) at nature's call and discovered a leak in my hot water system. Water on the floor of the trailer. I've got it drained now and will get it fixed in Boise later. This is just before I begin my longest jaunt of desert and little if any services. Have to find a shop. I'll be moving to The Snake River Resort in Homedale, ID today, due west of Boise on U.S. Hwy 95.