Always blessed to float the Owyhee River!

Floating by Pruitt's Castle and Chalk Basin with Liz and Wendy in the bow. 

Hi all, 

We managed to escape for 4-day trip on the Lower Owyhee River two weeks ago under mostly sunny skies. Felt lucky to be out there in one of my favorite spots with my partner Wendy, my son Quinn rowing his own raft, and several other friends, Liz Paul and Norm Nelson. 

We launched on a Thursday morning, so it wasn't too busy at the boat ramp in Rome. There must have been at least 200 vehicles in the parking lot, though, so clearly, the Owyhee River has been popular this spring season! 

Because of deep snow in the Owyhee and Jarbidge-Bruneau river basins last winter (285% of normal snowpack in the Owyhee and 268% in the Bruneau watershed as of April 20), this spring offered a rare chance to float those rivers for a longer window of time than normal when the water is high enough to go (March - June). If you don't have your own raft and whitewater gear, consider going with an outfitter. 

I'd recommend Far & Away Adventures, Wilderness River Outfitters, Barker River Expeditions, and ROW Adventures. Please see a press release and blogpost that I wrote for the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association.

Wendy enjoys the Owyhee River canyon at our campsite below Montgomery Rapids. 

Closing in on Memorial Day weekend, the Owyhee River has dropped to 1,600 cfs and it's continuing to slowly decline, so the window for rafting the river is closing over the next few weeks. Once it drops below 1,000 cfs, it's very rock and slow. The Bruneau River, however, is still running high at more than 2,000 cfs, so the window of time to run that river will extend well into June.  

One of the big advantages of floating the Lower Owyhee is that you follow a paved road (U.S. 95) to the boat-launch site in Rome, Oregon. To float the upper forks of the Owyhee, you have to drive for many miles on unimproved 4WD dirt roads that turn into major quicksand-like gumbo after lots of rain. So we had no worries about being able to reach the river last week, even though it had been wet. 

We took four days to float 48 miles to the Birch Creek takeout, upstream of Owyhee Reservoir. At a flow of 3,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), with hardly any wind, it was not too hard to make our river miles. 

The weather turned a bit on Day 4 with clouds and cooler temps in the morning.

I watch the weather closely for our trips on the Owyhee because when it's nasty out there, it's not fun. I've encountered driving rain, headwinds, thunder and lightning in previous trips. But we nailed the nice weather window this time around. Grateful for that!  

At 3,000 cfs, many of the rocks were covered with cushy flows. From a whitewater perspective, it's a pretty easy and mellow level with good current and fun waves.

The Lower Owyhee has mostly Class 2 rapids, with a few Class 3's and one Class 4, called Montgomery. I would rate that Class 3+ personally. Montgomery is not that hard. You have to pull away from a left-side wall as the current races around a left-hand bend. It's a pretty straight-forward maneuver, compared to Class 4 rapids that require multiple maneuvers around rocks or holes.

Quinn cooked up a feast of eggs, sausage and blueberry pancakes on the morning of Day 2. 

We had four major highlights on our trip:

1. Birds of Prey were everywhere! Golden eagles, kestrels, northern harriers, prairie falcons and red-tailed hawks were flying around the cliffs, diving toward the water and nesting in the cliffs. Plus, we saw pairs of geese on virtually every corner, some with goslings, a few pairs of mergansers and some mallards.

2. Volcanic rock formations on the Lower Owyhee are spectacular. The types of rock spans from black basalt lava similar to the Jordan Craters, to rhyolite red cliffs, basalt cliffs and many spires, hoodoos and other formations. It's fun to just stare in awe at these features and feel small.

3. Deep snow and April rains made the desert landscape the deepest shade of green imaginable. We must have caught the green-up at its peak. But the flowers were just starting to pop. Arrowleaf balsamroot was blooming everywhere.  

4. Camping out, campfires, S'mores, great meals and great people. I love camping out in general. Hanging out and relaxing in camp is one of my favorite things. My son Quinn cooked up a feast for a dinner and breakfast; that was nice to have him pitch in like that. He's put a lot of effort into learning new recipes. 

If you go, make sure you have enough time to do some side-hiking. The area around Pruitt's Castle is a great place to hike, Hike-out camp is another sweet hiking spot early in the trip, and below Whistling Bird Rapids, there's a sweet campsite with a way to hike to the top of the rim and enjoy big views of the canyon. From that viewpoint, it's amazing how small you can feel, being a tiny little speck amid the giant Owyhee River Plateau.

All I can say is getting away on an Owyhee or Jarbidge-Bruneau trip is good medicine for the soul. And you know, right at that moment, that you're extremely fortunate to experience it.

Side hiking around Pruitt's Castle

- SS

Amazing convergence of perfect weather, water levels makes a guy feel lucky on the Owyhee River

Pruitt's Castle rises from the sagebrush on the Owyhee River. 

Hi all, 

It's a special thing when you can escape to a never-never land like the Wild and Scenic Owyhee River, tune into the nature channel all around you, and enjoy some very special moments that stay with you long after the trip.  

Pulling out of camp, floating on a quiet section of the river, it's mesmerizing to just sit back and listen to the river, the birds, and the bugs, while dipping your oars in and out of the water in a rhythmic motion. 

And then the rapids come up around the corner. You're greeted by a thunderous sound of whitewater in a tight canyon, and it's time to focus on the river!    

Katie Metzger on the sticks in the cataraft; Make and Shane on the SUPs

Over 25+ years of doing spring trips on the Owyhee River, I feel like I've experience such an amazing array of challenging conditions with any combination of stiff headwinds, torrential rain storms, horizontal snow, muddy roads, even medical evacs. 

But in my most recent trip, March 22-25, the stars aligned for the most perfect conditions imaginable - conditions that I'm sure will never happen again! But we had a combination of solid river flows, perfect weather and ... shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no wind!  

OMG, that never happens on the Owyhee River! 

Bruce and Norm are pumped about the river trip at the put-in ... 

I'd been watching the river gauge daily, and I knew with a flow of 2,000 cfs in mid-March, that flow would not last long with 70 percent snowpack! 

And I'd been watching the weather daily, and the Rome, OR, forecast that week was amazingly nice and sunny with afternoon highs in the 70s. 

So I pulled together a trip in a matter of days. I got commitments from my friends Katie Metzger and Dan Popkey immediately. They both have their own rafts, so that meant we had 3 boats including mine, and our trip was a go! Just had to fill in with passengers. We were really lucky to get a bunch of super fun people together who could take off Tuesday-Friday during the middle of the week. 

Shane and Mark getting into their dry suits at the put-in.

My longtime friend Bruce Reichert, Mr. Outdoor Idaho, jumped at the chance to join us, as did my friend Norm Nelson. Morley Nelson's oldest son, Norm's spirit soars when we see golden eagles, prairie falcons and hawks flying above. Mine does too! We ended up seeing a ton of eagles, falcons and hawks! So special! 

My friend Mark Anderson and fellow SUP expert Shane Preston paddled their SUPs while I carried their gear. And Katie invited her friend Eric, a BSU math professor, to join us and ride in her cataraft. 

Natural hot springs along the way ... 

We had a crew of 8. Everyone took turns cooking. We ate like kings and queens every night. 

The trip: We floated 48 miles from the BLM put-in at Rome to the BLM takeout at the old Birch Creek Ranch. This section is known as the Lower Owyhee. You hire locals to drive your shuttle. It's a pretty gnarly 4WD high-clearance road to go from the Birch Creek takeout back to U.S. Highway 95, so you need a solid vehicle for the river trip. It's all pavement to the put-in. 

Norm does an oil painting of Pruitt's Castle in camp 

Trip map: BLM river guides are available for all of the forks of the Owyhee River and the Jarbidge-Bruneau river.  

I'm just going to share a few photos from our trip. Not much more needs to be said about the Owyhee River canyon's beauty. The pictures do the talking. 

Bruce works on his Chicken piccata dish with plenty of butter, garlic and morels in the Dutch oven.   

Katie is talented with her magical colored balls at night ... check out the video. 

Many local boaters know about the Owyhee River. But if you don't have your own gear, plan a trip with an Idaho outfitter. There are several that do the Owyhee, including ROW Adventures, Far & Away, Barker River Expeditions, and Wilderness River Outfitters. 

- SS

Dan made delicious salmon filets on night 3, combined with mushroom
risotto  and salad. Pineapple upside down cake for dessert in the D.O. 

Another angle on that camp ... pretty much paradise to me!  

Start making plans to run the Owyhee and Bruneau Rivers - snowpack looks good!

Cave Draw is only accessible from the river

Hi all,

We had a big crowd for my River Talk on Tuesday night, sponsored by Idaho Rivers United, at Idaho River Sports, where I shared some of my experiences in running the Jarbidge-Bruneau River and several forks of the Owyhee River.

Here's my slide show if you want to take a peek: https://www.slideshare.net/SteveStuebner1/running-rivers-in-the-owyhee-canyonlands

Wendy's favorite is the East Fork of the Owyhee River 

Back in the day, intel about these rivers was considered kind of a closely-guarded secret among those in the know, but that's changed quite a bit some 30+ years after I started running them in the 1980s. Early-day  "river rats" were really the first to explore the Owyhee and Jarbidge-Bruneau rivers back in the day in the 1970s with primitive river gear and craft. Nowadays most people know about the opportunity, but it's not easy to access the rivers in many instances (rough roads, muddy roads, need a big 4WD truck, etc.), and you might not have your own boat.

This spring will be a good one to float the Owyhee or the Bruneau Rivers because we are looking at more than 100 percent of normal snowpack. It's just a question of when things begin to melt.

If you've never done one of our desert rivers, it's a good time to book with an Idaho outfitter. Four companies lead trips on those rivers every year, including:

• Far and Away Adventures in Sun Valley.
• ROW Adventures in Coeur d'Alene. 
• Wilderness River Adventures in Salmon. 
• Jon Barker - Barker River Expeditions. Barker also leads canyoneering trips in the Owyhees.

All of those outfitters are rock-solid. Check with the individual outfitters on pricing, style of trip, etc. 

Dad and Drew on the Lower Owyhee

Here are some highlights from my presentation:

1. The Owyhee and Bruneau River systems are spring rivers. There are no upstream storage reservoirs. You have to watch the snowpack and the river flows to get a sense of when you need to plan a trip out there. In general, Owyhee River season is March-May, and Bruneau is May-June. The biggest limiting factor is weather and road access.

2.  The Lower Owyhee River is the easiest fork of the Owyhee River system to access and the easiest river to negotiate in terms of the rapids. But you still need a solid 4WD rig to get out of the canyon at Birch Creek.

• Logistics ... 48 miles from BLM Rome put-in west of Jordan Valley, OR, to BLM Birch Creek takeout. Put in is about 2+ hours from Boise. 
• Allow 3-5 days for the trip. A longer trip provides more flexibility for layover days and side hikes.  
• Dress in cold-weather gear on your trip. There can be extreme headwinds in the spring, bone-chilling NW winds, blizzards or driving rain. I've had all of those things in one trip. 
• Lower Owyhee has Class 2-3+ rapids ... experienced Stand Up Paddle (SUPs) boarders do well on that trip. Also good for rafts, IKs, skilled whitewater canoeists.

East Fork Owyhee near "The Tules"

3. East Fork Owyhee River is one of the most challenging rivers to do because of challenging access at the start and the end, but one of the most scenic and secluded.

• Logistics ... 43 miles from Garat BLM put-in west of Duck Valley Indian Reservation to Crutcher's Crossing BLM takeout. Put in is about 4+ hours from Boise. 
• Allow 5-6 days for the trip. A longer trip provides more flexibility for layover days and side hikes.  
• Dress in cold-weather gear on your trip. There can be extreme headwinds in the spring, bone-chilling NW winds, blizzards or driving rain. I've had all of those things in one trip. 
• High-clearance 4WD required.
• Portage at Owyhee Falls required. Many Class 2-3 rapids. Portage at Eye of the Needle may be required, too.
• Go with someone who's been there before. 
• Watch for snakes after things warm up.

Whitewater canoes double as camp table on the East Fork.

4. Three Forks to Rome section of Owyhee River is also super challenging and remote, but it's a favorite of hard-core whitewater rafters because of the potential to run or portage Widowmaker. Other challenging Class 4+ rapids include Ledge, located less than a mile from the put-in, and Halfmile, about half way through the trip.

• Only experienced and skilled boaters should go on this section. 
• 37 miles ... allow 3-4 days for the trip 
• Put-in at Three Forks (unimproved dirt road); takeout at Rome.
• High-clearance 4WD required.
• Be sure to scout Widowmaker to plan portage or run the rapids.  

Steve feeling the #Private Idaho experience in the Bruneau Canyon.

5. Bruneau River is one of my all-time favorites. It's a super scenic canyon.

• Logistics ... 41 miles from Hot Springs put-in south of Bruneau and the Bruneau Canyon. Put in is about 4.5+ hours from Boise. 
• Allow 3-5 days for the trip. A longer trip provides more flexibility for layover days and side hikes.  
• Dress in cold-weather gear on your trip. There can be extreme headwinds in the spring, bone-chilling NW winds, blizzards or driving rain. I've had all of those things in one trip. 
• High-clearance 4WD required to reach the put-in at Hot Springs. Very, very rough road.

Steve on his first Bruneau River trip in a Maravia Espirit new self-bailing raft. Circa May 1987.

6. Jarbidge River is very challenging for skilled kayakers. Lots of Class 3-4-5 rapids. Multiple portages. Go with someone who's been there before. Need a strong crew. Be safe!

You will need to shuttle your rigs from the put-in to the takeout with a shuttle service or do it yourself. The BLM and other sources have a list of shuttle services for the desert rivers. Make sure you have your invasive species permit!

There you have it! Have fun!
- SS          

Try floating the Owyhee River with friends or an outfitter - it's spectacular!

My son Drew is ready to roll at the Rome put-in for the Lower Owyhee River.

Bonnie, Rico, Kelley and Lawrence enjoy hanging out in camp on the afternoon of Day 3, below Montgomery Rapids.

Spectacular spot for our camp on night 3.

Hi all,

I managed to get out of town last weekend for a 4-day trip on the Lower Owyhee River. We launched on the warmest day of the year last Friday, when the mercury hit 80 degrees, and amazingly enough, there were a ton of parties launching on the river as well! Imagine that!

Because of deep snow in the Owyhee and Jarbidge-Bruneau river basins last winter, this spring offers a rare, and great chance to float those rivers when the water is high enough to go (April - June). If you don't have your own raft and whitewater gear, consider going with an outfitter. I'd recommend Far & Away Adventures, Wilderness River Outfitters, Barker River Expeditions, and ROW Adventures. Please see press release that I wrote for the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association.
 
One of the big advantages of floating the Lower Owyhee is that you follow a paved road (U.S. 95) to the boat-launch site in Rome, Ore. To float the upper forks of the Owyhee, you have to drive for many miles on unimproved 4WD dirt roads that turn into major quicksand-like gumbo after lots of rain. So we had no worries about being able to reach the river last week, even though it had been wet.

Dad and Drew are bundled up on the morning of Day 3.

We took four days to float 48 miles to the Birch Creek takeout, upstream of Owyhee Reservoir. At a flow of 4,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), it should have been quite easy to make our river miles. But that isn't how things turned out. After a beautiful, warm and tranquil day on Day 1, we had driving rain, headwinds, thunder and lightning on Day 2. High temperatures were probably in the 40s. Then we had big headwinds on Day 3, but luckily, the skies were clear -- just a cutting Northwest wind. Good thing we came ready to dress very warm!

At 4,000 cfs, the river is comparatively wide and most of the rocks are covered. So from a whitewater perspective, it's a pretty easy and mellow level with good current and fun waves.

The Lower Owyhee has mostly Class 2 rapids, with a few Class 3's and one Class 4, called Montgomery. I would rate that Class 3+ personally. Montgomery is not that hard. You have to pull away from a left-side wall as the current races around a left-hand bend. It's a pretty straight-forward maneuver, compared to Class 4 rapids that require multiple maneuvers around rocks or holes.

We had four major highlights on our trip:

1. Birds of Prey were everywhere! Golden eagles, kestrels, northern harriers, prairie falcons and other hawks were flying around the cliffs, diving toward the water and nesting in the cliffs. Plus, we saw pairs of geese on virtually every corner, some with goslings, a few pairs of mergansers and some mallards.

2. Volcanic rock formations on the Lower Owyhee are spectacular. The types of rock spans from black basalt lava similar to the Jordan Craters, to rhyolite red cliffs, basalt cliffs and many spires, hoodoos and other formations. It's fun to just stare in awe at these features and feel small.

3. Recent rainfall and good snowpack made the desert landscape the deepest shade of green imaginable. We must have caught the green-up at its peak. But the flowers were just starting to pop because it's been such a late spring. 

4. Camping out, campfires, S'mores, great meals and great people. I love camping out in general, and we brought a bunch of firewood for a campfire every night in my fire pan. For the night I cooked, I brought all of the key ingredients for S'mores, and everyone really enjoyed that. I got to bring my son, Drew, along for the trip, and he's really turning into an excellent river camper. Great bonding time for Dad and Drew.

Cool nooks and crannies to explore.

If you go, make sure you have enough time to do some side-hiking. The area around Pruitt's Castle is a great place to hike, Hike-out camp is another sweet hiking spot early in the trip, and below Whistling Bird Rapids, there's a sweet campsite with a way to hike to the top of the rim and enjoy big views of the canyon. From that viewpoint, it's amazing how small you can feel, being a tiny little speck amid the giant Owyhee River Plateau.

All I can say is getting away on an Owyhee, Bruneau or Jarbidge-Bruneau trip is good medicine for the soul. And you know, right at that moment, that you're extremely fortunate to experience it.
------------------
A few notes on happenings this weekend:

• Idaho Whitewater Association used equipment sale 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday at Cascade River Gear.  
• Sheep in the Foothills - A band of sheep is moving through the Boise Foothills as we speak for the next week or so. Watch the Life on the Range Facebook page or Ridge to Rivers Facebook page for sheep locations. 

The sheep were north of the Corrals Trailhead and Miller Gulch Trailhead on Wednesday, April 24.

- SS

Seize the day and plan a trip on the Owyhee River! You've got a little over a month to do it!

Wendy and Huck as we leave camp on Sunday morning ... the sun came out a few minutes later ... 

Now we can see some sunshine deep in the Owyhee River Canyon ... 

Caves to explore next to a potential camp site a few miles from the Birch Creek take-out

Hi all,

Spring is finally coming to SW Idaho after such a long winter ... and all of the luscious powder we enjoyed in the mountains is flowing down the mountains and into our favorite rivers. Last weekend, Wendy and I saw a decent weather window opening up last Friday-Sunday, so we seized the day and floated the lower Owyhee River, from Rome to Birch Creek, a 45-mile scenic trip just across the Idaho border in Eastern Oregon.

We had three rafts and six people. It's always cool to float with a small group when you're doing an impromptu trip. That makes the prep so much easier -- especially if you're going with experienced people who have all the necessary gear.

It's a 1.5- to 2-hour drive to the BLM put-in by the Owyhee River bridge on U.S. 95 in Rome. We stopped in Jordan Valley to buy 2017 invasive species permits at the hardware store. That was a smart move because an Oregon State Police officer was checking for them at the put-in ... didn't see anyone from the BLM.

We launched on a sunny day on Friday, with temperatures in the low 70s, and the river was running in excess of 6,000 cubic feet per second -- a sweet, fast flow. The Owyhee already has peaked this year in February, when it rocketed to 20,000+ cfs when we had that big warm up period, and rain on snow. That melted a lot of the low-elevation snow.

Last year, the Owyhee and the Bruneau rivers had a nice long season, but I was busy running off to my son's out-of-state hockey tournaments or work trips. So this year, I was not to be denied! And if you run the Owyhee in March, chances are you might be able to run it again in April or early May!

If you've always thought about running the Owyhee River, this is a great year to do so. The river may be peaking about now, according to the snow survey experts. The Mud Flat Snotel site has melted out, and more than 30 percent of the snow has melted from South Mountain -- those are the typical indicators when the river peaks, according to the experts. But the Owyhee should have boatable flows through April, and possibly early May, depending on how much more precipitation we get, how warm it gets and how fast the river runs off.

Why float the Owyhee? To see and experience the Owyhee Canyonlands, a vast landscape full of hidden caves, slot canyons, big canyons like the Owyhee River, spires, hoodoos and more. The scenery and geology are spectacular ... be sure to bring a book along like "Roadside Geology of Oregon," to learn about the volcanic episodes that dominated the Owyhee region for millions of years, plus the various basalt lava flows and rhyolite lava flows and outcroppings.

And bring your camera and video camera to document your trip.

For me, another key attraction is camping out on the river. It's so easy to haul all of that stuff on your boat, and you can camp in style with the big camp table, Dutch oven meals, lawn chairs, iced coolers full of your favorite drinks, and dry boxes to carry all of your dry goods.

I just love camp fire in the evening on a March river trip ... the regulations are to pack-in your own firewood.

The Rome-to-Birch Creek section is pretty friendly in terms of whitewater ... the rapids are mostly Class 2 and 3 on a scale of 1-6, with 6 being a steep waterfall. Because the river was moving so fast, and bank-full, we made great time on the water, traveling at least 5 mph without even trying to push downriver. With fast pushy water, however, you do need to anticipate your moves well in advance, and sneak the inside corners when you can see hazards on the outside corners when you're approaching rapids. Whistling Bird and Montgomery are typically the biggest rapids on the river, but at 6,000-7,000 cfs, Whistling Bird was super easy, and Montgomery was the typical pull to the right to avoid the wall and hole at the bottom.

The BLM has an excellent map booklet available that provides a mile-by-mile guide to the lower Owyhee River, as well as the other forks of the Owyhee and the Jarbidge-Bruneau. You can find the river map at the BLM State Office on Overland and Vinnell in Boise, or also at Idaho River Sports. I highly recommend it. The map marks all the rapids and the designated campsites.

If you don't have your own river gear, there are a number of outfitters that do Owyhee River trips, including Far & Away Adventures, Barker River Expeditions, Wilderness River Outfitters, and ROW Adventures. All of those outfitters are really solid and put on great trips! Be sure to get in touch and reserve a date before their trips fill up.

For vehicle shuttles, we used Eva Matteri, 541-586-2352. The cost was $160/vehicle. Well worth it!
-------------------
Notes: In case you missed the Facebook post earlier this week, my blog, Stueby's Outdoor Journal was selected as one of the Top 20 outdoor blogs in the Northwest by the Outdoor Authority. I thought you'd enjoy seeing some of the other blogs mentioned in the top list. They all sound really good. My friend Mike Lanza's The Big Outside always has quality content, featuring world-class trips and a lot of tips about outdoor gear.

Greenbelt underpass closures and flooding closures: If you're been looking for a comprehensive list of Greenbelt closures, the Statesman had a story in today's paper with the latest closures. The river is supposed to go up to 8,000 cfs today ...

Bogus and Brundage winding down: Brundage's last day of operation is Sunday, April 9th, with a pond-skimming event set for April 8th. The last day of operations at Bogus will be Sunday, April 16th. The last opportunity for night skiing is this Saturday. Nordic operations will close following this weekend as well.
- SS

Try the Lower Owyhee River - it's special

View from the top of the rim

Whistling Bird Rapids

Wendy had to bundle up on the river

Wendy Eklund warms her feet in a natural hot springs

Wendy Eklund enjoys the blond cliffs

The put-in at Rome, Oregon

Hi all,

At the last minute, we whipped together a small group of six people and two rafts to float the Lower Owyhee River last weekend. I saw a three-day window of 60-degree sunny weather, and we decided to go for it.

One of the big advantages of floating the Lower Owyhee is that you follow a paved road (U.S. 95) to the boat-launch site in Rome, Ore. To float the upper forks of the Owyhee, you have to drive for many miles on unimproved 4WD dirt roads that turn into major quicksand-like gumbo after lots of rain. So we had no worries about being able to reach the river last week, even though it had been wet.

We heard a ton of people were going to be floating the river from our shuttle driver, so we left Boise at 6 a.m. and made it to Rome by 8 a.m. We were blowing up our rafts when some of the people camping at the BLM launch site were just waking up and getting their coffee cranking.

We took three days to float 48 miles to the Birch Creek takeout, upstream of Owyhee Reservoir. At a flow of 3,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), clocking 15 miles a day wasn't too hard. It's far better to take 4 or 5 days for the trip, if you have the time. The river is comparatively wide at 3,000 cfs and most of the rocks are covered. So from a whitewater perspective, it's a pretty easy and mellow level.

The Lower Owyhee has mostly Class 2 rapids, with a few Class 3's and one Class 4, called Montgomery. As Class 4 rapids go, Montgomery is not that hard. You have to pull away from a left-side wall as the current races around a left-hand bend. It's a pretty straight-forward maneuver, compared to Class 4 rapids that require multiple maneuvers around rocks or holes.

We had four major highlights on our trip:

1. Birds of Prey were everywhere! Golden eagles, kestrels, northern harriers, prairie falcons and other hawks were flying around the cliffs, diving toward the water and nesting in the cliffs. Plus, we saw pairs of geese on virtually every corner, some with goslings, a few pairs of mergansers and some mallards.

2. Volcanic rock formations on the Lower Owyhee are spectacular. The types of rock spans from black lava similar to the Jordan Craters, to rhyolite red cliffs, basalt cliffs and many spires, hoodoos and other formations. It's fun to just stare in awe at these features and feel small.

3. Recent rainfall and good snowpack made the desert landscape the deepest shade of green imaginable. We thought we were there almost at the peak. It was just gorgeous in that regard, but very few flowers were popping ... we saw a few groups of yellow arrowleaf balsamroot.

4. Delicious ribs on night #2. My friend Doug Lawrence, who guides part-time on the Grand Canyon and on Idaho rivers, made this incredible dinner with pork ribs on the grill, red potatoes in the Dutch oven, and cole slaw ... in addition to some fine cabernet sauvignon. Oh baby!

On the second night, before dinner, I hiked to the top of the rim, on the nose of a ridge that passed by multiple rock formations without any trouble. And in 30 minutes, I was on top of the world. From that viewpoint, it's amazing how small you can feel, being a tiny little speck amid the giant Owyhee River Plateau.

All I can say is that it's good medicine. And you know, right at that moment, that you're extremely fortunate to experience it.

If you don't have your own raft or kayak, and you'd like to try the Lower Owyhee, please see my earlier post about planning an Owyhee River trip and select an outfitter to take you on the river.

- SS