Hells Canyon - July 2016

In early July, we ventured to a place with an unfriendly name: Hells Canyon. Peter has talked about his first visit there many times, remarking on how it reminds him of Mt. Diablo (his favorite spot to hike when he lived in California) and a little Steens Mountain (our first ever backpacking destination). Sounded pretty awesome.

Camping in the Blue Mountains.

It was supposed to be a 6 hour drive but ended up being more like 8, due to windy roads and google sending us the wrong way at least once. We ended up on this very questionable 'road' which really looked more like someone's driveway. Three crazy dogs barked at us for a good 1/4 mile and kept running at the car.

Dead end road south of Zumwalt Prairie

We started our trip at the Freezeout Saddle trailhead around 1pm. We knew from prior experience that starting a hike mid-day in a desert landscape is a bad idea, but we did it anyway.

Approaching Freezeout Saddle

Once we made it up to  Freezeout Saddle (climbing some 2000 feet) we had to immediately descend into the Saddle Creek drainage (losing at least half of the elevation). It was a beautiful afternoon, but we were fading quickly with the heat. We can normally handle big elevation gains and losses, but there's something about backpacking in the desert.

Descending into Saddle Creek Drainage.

Part way down I spotted some Ponderosa Pine and was eager to sniff them - they smell like butterscotch on hot days (I learned this from my best friend from college - Erin)! Mmmmm.

Sniffing some tasty smelling Ponderosa Pine.

The descent allowed us to scope out some promontories for camping - we intended to go to the 'next one' to set up camp.

View of first promontory.

The grassy fields were truly magnificent - Peter was right about them being similar to Diablo. Grasses, grasses everywhere.

Freezeout Saddle in the distance.

Another spectacular element of the fields was the dandelions - I have never seen so many, of such large variety. Some of them were gigantic. I still tried to make a wish by blowing them into the wind (it did take several very large breaths to make any progress).

Mega-dandelion wish.

It was difficult to capture all the dandelions in pictures, but we tried.

Freezeout Saddle, dandelions, fading light.

After about 3 'just the next one' promontories, we finally settled (mostly because we were running out of light).

Grassy sunset.

I couldn't decide if the mornings or the evenings were more beautiful. It was actually relatively cold overnight so feeling a bit of sun on my face to wake me up was quite nice.

First morning in Hells Canyon (Freezeout Saddle in the distance).

Unfortunately, this seems to be the year of overgrown trails. We had to do a significant amount of bushwhacking just to get through the day. One bonus of the overgrown trails: black raspberries :)

Bushes chock-full of raspberries.

About half of our bounty.

We planned to make it to Hat Point for a siesta to beat the heat (where Peter had visited many years prior). At this point, there wasn't much in the way of trails - they would start and end randomly. The main trail which traversed the canyon was decent enough (we could see it, whether or not it was pleasant hiking), but getting off to the viewpoints required walking through lots of grass.

Walking out to the mesa below Hat Point.

We decided, as we often do, to stay here for the night and just do an afternoon walk. It was a welcome change of pace, being able to admire the hills as the sun went down.

Mountains of Idaho.

We ventured out onto the main trail, to try walking a bit north, on the trail that we would have taken if we had decided to do the long route. We were very grateful for our decision to stop for the night, as the trail promised even less water and more bushwhacking. The afternoon walk granted us sweeping views of the canyon.

Sluice Canyon

Moonrise over Hat Point Mesa.

Sunrise at Camp.

In the morning we ventured up the trail that Peter had taken on his trip. It was overgrown, at best. For some reason, a lot of trails in Hells Canyon seem to be PAINFULLY gentle. As in, you go a half mile and only climb about 10 feet. This is great if you are just hiking around town, but not if you're trying to make up 2,000 - 4,000 feet of elevation gain. There were a lot of user trails from people avoiding unnecessary creek crossings and re-crossings (which were densely overgrown with bushes) and we took those whenever we could.

Finally made it out of the canyon. View from Hat Point trailhead.

We stopped at the top for a short rest in the shade. At this point, we were pretty low on water and spent most of the day dehydrated. It was probably about 15 miles in total and there wasn't much in the way of water and we never had enough. While stopped, we also found FIFTEEN TICKS on Peter. In total, over the course of the 3 day/2 night trip, we found about 20 ticks on the two of us. I got pretty good at removing them.

We hiked the rest of the day along forest roads which was a relief. Not much in the way of elevation gains and losses (compared with the canyon trails) and no bushes in the way. It was hot though, the roads don't really provide shade.

Returning to Freezeout Saddle.

Once we finally made it back to Freezeout Saddle it was quite a relief. It was a beautiful time to be there and we were sad that couldn't stay too long.

View from Freezeout Saddle.

The trail from Freezeout Saddle back to the car was back to the usual 'very little elevation progress' profile that we had gotten used to, so it took us a little while.

Approaching trailhead.

When we arrived at the car we washed up from a tiny faucet which has clear water running into a trough for cows. It was so incredibly dusty and hot that we were disgusting. And there was a lot of cow mess everywhere (mud, poo, gigantic holes in the trail) so it was a wonderful relief to finally be 'clean'.

Our final glimpse of color on the clouds during our drive out of Imnaha Canyon.

We'll definitely be back to Hells Canyon. Maybe even next spring. I look forward to enjoying the scenery earlier in the year when it's less desolate (maybe even snowy!).