Riggins, ID, and the Salmon River

We only had a couple days in Riggins, so we went exploring.  The town is definitely a river town, it looked like everything in town was related to the river in some way, either by name or service.  It's quite a bustling town for only 410 residents, but I'm sure at this time of year with all the rafting there are way, way more folks.  We drove through and up north a bit, we had come this way in 2014 when we went jet boating on the Snake River in Hell's Canyon out of White Bird, ID.  We were able to stop easily in the truck and saw many rafters going by.

Pretty sedate water here

The Salmon River has the distinction of being the longest free-flowing river within one state in the lower 48, 425 miles.  It is also known as "The River of no Return".  It flows through one of the deepest gorges on the continent.  Its granite walled canyon is one fifth of a mile deeper than the Grand Canyon, and for about 180 miles the canyon is over one mile deep!

We drove up a little forest road that followed along the river to the east or upstream for awhile.  It was a beautiful road with exceptional scenery.  We saw several deer and an elk.  

Full of rapids

And lots of calm water

As we progressed we noticed several signs indicating construction ahead, and caution about a bridge, both weight and length restrictions, and sure enough we came upon a flag person who said she could let us go through right now but realize there could be delay of up to 30 minutes coming back.  We were waffling, but she said it was very interesting to see how they supported a crane out over the river to do the construction of the new bridge.  So we said okay, now she didn't mention any description of the bridge:)  We came around a bend and there was the bridge, a narrow, old looking, single lane suspension bridge that didn't look like it could support a lawn mower let alone us, but it didn't matter, there was no way to turn around anyway!

The bridge

Looks nice, huh?

We made it across and as we cleared the bridge there was another flag person on the other side.  I asked what weight was the bridge rated for, and she said she didn't know but her family used to take log trucks across it!!  That would be a challenge as on each end of the bridge was a 90 degree turn that would be difficult to deal with even if the bridge did in fact hold you up.  They are replacing the bridge and needed a crane to do some of the work and they did in fact mount it out over the river.  I would have loved to see them get it in position!

Quite an accomplishment

We drove another 10-15 miles up the river before we turned around.  What beautiful country, we definitely have to come back, especially with our new, yet to be announced, endeavor.  We made our way back to town, had a great lunch cooked and served to us by gregarious Kate at the Kate's Cattleman's Family Restaurant.

We poked around in the rain for another day and in the midst of more rain made our way down south, over the Snake River and back north to Wallowa, OR to explore the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest for a few days.

Our rainy trip through gorgeous scenery