Went to HELLs Canyon and Back......

Our boat the Happy Hour

Snake River through Hells Canyon

The belly of the beast! This photo does not show the true size of this fish!

We had such a blast yesterday on the jet boat ride down the Snake River in the Hells Canyon recreation area. So much fun! We used a tour group called Killgore Adventures. We stayed at their campground too. This is also the group that took the boys fishing earlier in the week. We arrived at the dock at about 10am for the 6 hour trip. The scenery was gorgeous. Rapid water and smooth pools, towering canyon walls. We spotted Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, belted kingfishers, deer and big horn sheep. It was a good size herd of sheep with mommies and their babies. We took the boat up to a couple of stops at historical points of interest, such as Kirkwood Historic Ranch, the Hells Canyon Dam and Sheep Creek Ranch. On the way back is when we had all the fun running over the rapids. Water came up and over the top of the boat on a class 4 rapids. Marlin & Cindy white water raft every summer, and Marlin thought they were not quite 4's yesterday, but close. To me they might as well have been 10's! Many times I got a blast of water to the face! Love it! When we got to the area where we were going to get off the boat again for a little swim time, which was greatly needed in the high 90's heat, there was a fisherman there who had just hooked a sturgeon. Kirk was pulling the boat around when the sturgeon leaped out of the water....it was HUGE! Very cool to see that. We pulled up to the beach and spent half an hour watching this guy land the fish. I spent about 20 of those minutes sitting in the river to cool off. Felt wonderful. Then I walked over and watched the guy pull the beast in. They figured it was 7' long and about 150-200 pounds. HUGE!!

We are going to have so many great memories from this trip!