Snake River
The Corps of Discovery first placed on a map the powerful stream we followed today into the deepest of North America’s canyons. It began as Lewis’s River to honor their leader, Meriwether Lewis. But because of the early death of Lewis after their return there was a long delay in publishing the expedition maps and journals. Fur traders who followed named it Snake River.
Indians living along the river, who we know as Shoshone, had a hand sign to identify themselves. Their hand sign resembled the movement of a Snake, and so the fur brigades attached the name Snake to both the river and those Indians.
At sunup Sea Lion was finishing a night’s passage through four dam locks that bring inland navigation some 470 miles from the Pacific Ocean, via the Columbia River and then through the Lower Snake River Canyon, to Lewiston, ID. Here the Snake River starts to run free, and we boarded a fast jet-sled boat.
The sled draws just inches of water and skims up a river that drops nearly nine feet per mile in its deepest chasm, Hells Canyon with a depth of 8,913 feet. After surmounting many bouncing rapids our guests had box lunches at China Bar, a tiny sand beach cove hemmed by towering heights where golden eagles soar.
Lazuli Bunting, Western Kingbird and Yellow Warbler had just returned to the canyons and our early risers saw several Rocky Mountain Elk and both white-tailed and mule deer side-by-side for comparison.
The lower canyon slopes dry quickly and the summer heat is fierce. The dark canyon walls soak up and retain and radiate the heat. May is ideal for canyon travel, and then late September and October. Of the canyon floral display the best today was the Snake River Phlox. (Phlox colubrina) with its tall blazing pink clusters.
This phlox prefers dry rim outcrops and palisades. It is the showiest of all the Phlox genus and grows only in the Snake River canyons where you look skyward to see it clustered in pink splashes against stark walls.
The Corps of Discovery first placed on a map the powerful stream we followed today into the deepest of North America’s canyons. It began as Lewis’s River to honor their leader, Meriwether Lewis. But because of the early death of Lewis after their return there was a long delay in publishing the expedition maps and journals. Fur traders who followed named it Snake River.
Indians living along the river, who we know as Shoshone, had a hand sign to identify themselves. Their hand sign resembled the movement of a Snake, and so the fur brigades attached the name Snake to both the river and those Indians.
At sunup Sea Lion was finishing a night’s passage through four dam locks that bring inland navigation some 470 miles from the Pacific Ocean, via the Columbia River and then through the Lower Snake River Canyon, to Lewiston, ID. Here the Snake River starts to run free, and we boarded a fast jet-sled boat.
The sled draws just inches of water and skims up a river that drops nearly nine feet per mile in its deepest chasm, Hells Canyon with a depth of 8,913 feet. After surmounting many bouncing rapids our guests had box lunches at China Bar, a tiny sand beach cove hemmed by towering heights where golden eagles soar.
Lazuli Bunting, Western Kingbird and Yellow Warbler had just returned to the canyons and our early risers saw several Rocky Mountain Elk and both white-tailed and mule deer side-by-side for comparison.
The lower canyon slopes dry quickly and the summer heat is fierce. The dark canyon walls soak up and retain and radiate the heat. May is ideal for canyon travel, and then late September and October. Of the canyon floral display the best today was the Snake River Phlox. (Phlox colubrina) with its tall blazing pink clusters.
This phlox prefers dry rim outcrops and palisades. It is the showiest of all the Phlox genus and grows only in the Snake River canyons where you look skyward to see it clustered in pink splashes against stark walls.
