Our day started out with a trip about 30 miles south to the town of Riggins. We were still in hopes of finding a boat trip through Hell’s Canyon but there didn’t seem to be anything happening much before this coming weekend, Memorial Day weekend. We did make a visit to the Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Park headquarters south of White Bird and were given some suggestions for scenic drives- one which we will be taking tomorrow as we move toward the Craters of the Moon National Park. We stopped at a fruit stand that seemed to have lots of groceries besides fruit and also a hardware store. We bought some sweet cherries (from California) and a jar of huckleberry pie filling.
After a brief stop at the motorhome to deposit the fruit stand purchase we went a short distance to Hoot’s Café for lunch. Then we set out to drive to an area of Hell’s Canyon, Pittsburg Landing. Pittsburg Landing is one of a very few areas that can be driven to in the Canyon from the Idaho side. This Canyon is on the border of Idaho and Oregon. Trails from this point lead to viewpoints of the Canyon. The 17 mile drive starts near the campground and meanders up and down mountains until it descends down to the Snake River and Pittsburg Landing, the spot that the jet boats are loaded for the trips into the Canyon. Just prior to getting to the landing area we drove back a road to walk a short trail through an area that had pictographs on big rocks. Getting to the parking lot of the landing we walked down to the Snake River. A mother duck and her ducklings were playing in the river. We had considered walking a trail but big dark clouds were forming so we thought better not- we didn’t want to be out in stormy weather. Returning back on the 17 mile road we saw a snake slithering across the road. We saw numerous deer on our travels over this road. And then we saw our dream log house on one of the mountaintops that had a great view. We were driving in rain much of the way to the campground and the rain has continued with temperatures dropping into the 50’s from the 70’s.
