Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Hells Canyon
Oregon and Idaho share the deepest gorge in the United States. On one side of the Snake River is Oregon, on the other side is Idaho. The Snake River begins in Yellowstone and empties into the Columbia River.
When my wife and I were newlyweds, we moved to Queens, New York. We enjoyed our stay because we were 3,000 miles away from family. We had to depend on one another without Sunday dinners with family and friends. We made some good friends in Queens, but the day came when coming from Oregon we knew we had to go home to the American West.
We were not going to have children and send them to Public School #149. It is not that New Yorkers are not hard workers, they are. It was a culture shock for Karen and me.
We can be in wine country in about 10 to 15 minutes. We can be on the Oregon Coast in under an hour. We can be out of the Portland metro area on the way to the Big Nowhere in Eastern Oregon in about an hour.
Enjoy the video and applaud the parents for showing their children a world well worth seeing.
.
Published in Culture
I have relatives in Boise, and friends just south of Portland. We have traveled the Oregon Trail corridor across the eastern Oregon plains and down to the Columbia River gouge at least half a dozen times. It never gets old.
We have also taken the boys when they were young camping in the Idaho Sawtooth mountains, as well trips to the Craters of the Moon, and various place along the Snake river.
The Pacific Northwest is such a wonderful place, I hope all of the Californians that have been moving into the Boise (Treasure Valley) area don’t ruin it like they have Portland, and Seattle.
Here’s some history of the place:
Good one Doug. My experience was close. Wife (law school classmate, 53rd anniversary today) from a large Italian immigrant family in NYC. I was dying for San Francisco after my NROTC cruise there in 1969. So she said: “let’s make a deal”. Two years in NY and then California. Said OK. Lived in Manhattan and for an Okie after the first 6 months liked it. Cheap DOD subsidized flights to Europe. Free play tickets for Broadway shows at the USO. Then time to move. Only price was going to a carrier in Viet Nam. Got through that OK. Then 3 kids we got through private Catholic schools in San Fran (3 the same year in 1993 cost us $10K). So we made out just fine. Now just need to get out to Colorado.
Along with all the other Californians…
I was stationed at a small radar site in Wilder, Idaho in 1978-79. We traveled through a lot of the area, including Hell’s canyon which was mostly deserted back then. Another amazing place was the Owyhee reservoir and dam, which was a target for simulated B52 strikes (hence the radar site). Amazing area.
Even with very brief camping outings with my family, I was surprised by how much equipment, supplies, tools, and gear it takes to get back to nature.
And if you didn’t sufficiently prepare for an outing in the back woods, you would find out how quickly “nature” would like you to be rejoined to the ecosystem.
One of my fondest desires is to take the eco warriors, earth firsters, extinction crusaders, and give them at least a week of the survivalist treatment. Just to see how much nature appreciates their civilization challenging efforts. Preferable to have their organics reunited with the forest.
In my youth, I worked as a counselor in a summer camp. The camp owner took us all to the Algonquin Park in Ontario for a long canoe/portage trip. As a former Marine, he liked setting some serious distance goals each day (which were always met). The first portage was an ordeal but the boys learned from that how to pack and plan to move stuff. They quickly learned to paddle more efficiently.
Day five was nominally a rest day on an island in a lake but with a catch–after breakfast, it was find-your-own-food day. The lads took fish, frog legs, berries, and a large bird, all of which was probably illegal but it was all actually pretty tasty and they were intensely proud of themselves. You can stun a large bullfrog if you slap a canoe paddle exactly flat on the surface nearby. Fish taste better when you have to figure out how to use a hand line and what bugs work best as bait. The bird was minding its own business as a canoe drifted slowly towards it before the hunters rose and pounced with hurled rocks and a paddle as a club. Plucking is very tedious. And the biggest lesson of all: Young adolescent boys have innate skills and tendencies that should be explored and encouraged lest they emerge in less constructive forms.
Colorado will not solve any of your problems. It’s now California East.
Wilder is now one of the biggest hop growing areas in the country. We have a favorite campsite on the banks of the Snake nearby, and use it stage trips to the Owyhees or the Sunnyslope wine area (recommended).
If you see vineyards you know the region is lost.
This video had spectacular footage of the sights that Hells Canyon offers up.
Plus the people in the video were a delight.
Enjoyed the video, thanks for posting it.
Back then hops were huge (and mint). We visited about ten years ago and it actually seemed like there were not as many hops fields as I remembered. The road from Wilder west to the radar site was solidly lined with those poles and wires they used to grow hops.
The radar site is now some small army installation overlooking the Snake.
My goodness that hilarious.
And true, of course.