Blog

Flows were looking good in mid May, which isn’t always the case on a river as fickle as the Owyhee. Snowpack was good over the winter, and flows were slowly declining to what would be ideal for a trip, 2700 CFS. We packed our bags, hooked up the raft and headed to southeast Oregon for our second trip on the Wild Owyhee.

Video of the trip:

The boat ramp was as busy as usual, filled with the clueless people using the ramp as a spot to eat breakfast, catch up on old times, talk about the weather, really anything but actively rigging or loading their boat. After requesting that the people that had unloaded their boats over 12 hours before make a hole so we could launch, we quickly rigged and shoved off after less than 15 minutes of work, leaving the chaos behind.

You don’t have to go far before you have really left it all behind. Tiny Rome, Oregon is already pretty much the middle of nowhere, and after a few miles you are past the farmland and gazing at the Pillars of Rome.

We were on the river early and we quickly covered about 14 miles, enough for day one, we pulled into Hike Out camp for the night. There is a nice well worn trail leading to the rimrock above, and great views.

We were up early and floating well before 8. Another beautiful but uneventful day of floating through a postcard. We stayed at the Ryegrass Camp, just below the hotsprings.

There was another well worn trail leading up out of camp and we took it. It led us to a great overlook of Pruitt’s Castle.

The next day was my favorite segment of the river, floating past Lambert Dome, Chalk Basin and through the vertical rock walls that make up Iron Point Canyon. The scenery is just indescribable, you have to float through it to really appreciate it. There’s a few rapids as well (check the video for those).

For nights three and four we took a layover day and spent part of the day catching enough catfish for shore lunch – yum. We also walked up to the old Morcum Dam to give it a look. It took a lot of resolve to give it a go living in this country, and the ranch the dam supplied is just a couple abandoned buildings now.

I had forgotten how beautiful the final stretch of the river is above Birch Creek. We were on the water early again, before 7, and the shadows on the canyon walls cast a nice light.

Our final day involved both the float but also, since we weren’t taking out at Birch Creek, a 12 mile ferry across the reservoir. The top end of the reservoir was full of trees, which was a surprise to me in this hot arid land. I guess with a little engineering and a lot of money you can make things like trees magically appear where they aren’t supposed to be.

I’ll take the natural river, the canyons, the rocks, and the beauty created when they are all combined to make the Wild Owyhee. I can’t wait to go back.