SHOSHONE
Shoshone
Falls is the king of the mighty Snake River. It is massive, at 212’ high and 900’
wide. I had planned to visit the tourist
overlook to see it, but I’d heard that the view from there wasn’t very
good. Viewing it from the base would be
far superior, but reaching that point is difficult, as the waterfall is down in
a canyon. When I was late in the
planning stages for our Idaho trip, I stumbled upon an intriguing idea. When water levels are fairly
low, it is possible to kayak the Snake River from Centennial Park in
Twin Falls upstream to Shoshone Falls. AWOL
Adventure Sports is located in Centennial Park, and
offers guided trips and kayak rentals. I
discussed the idea with Christy, and we decided to sacrifice a dayhike in the Sawtooths for this
experience. It was the last thing we
added to our trip plan, but it ended up being one of our favorite parts.
We
left City of Rocks early Sunday morning and drove back to Twin Falls. We checked in at AWOL Adventure Sports a bit
before 10am and were on the water shortly thereafter. I was thrilled to be kayaking on the Snake
River. The Snake starts in Yellowstone
National Park and runs through Grand Teton National Park before entering Idaho. In Idaho, it runs through a series of
canyons, culminating with Hells Canyon, on the Oregon border. Hells Canyon is nearly 8,000’ deep – nearly 2,000’
deeper than the Grand Canyon! From
there, it runs into Washington State, where it joins the Columbia River for its
final run to the Pacific.
Water
levels were actually higher than expected, due to dam
releases upstream. This made kayaking
upstream a little more difficult, but the trip was mostly easy overall. The only major challenge was portaging around
Pillar Falls – a large rapid amid house-sized boulders about halfway upstream.
First
though, we paddled below towering cliffs.
There were lots of other people on the water, primarily in kayaks and on
paddleboards. There were a few
motorboats, too, but we would only have to share the river with them on the
first half of the journey. It was a hot,
sunny morning, with temperatures in mid-90’s expected that afternoon. We passed several high waterfalls on
tributary streams before passing below the Perrine Memorial Bridge. The bridge is almost 1,500’ long, and nearly
500’ above river level. The bridge is
famous for legal base jumping.
Giant
boulders in the middle of the river signified our approach to Pillar
Falls. Pillar Falls isn’t really a
waterfall, but it is an impressive run of rapids at the bottom of a rugged
canyon. We paddled to the south
(River-Left) side of the rapids and prepared to portage. The optimal route wasn’t obvious, so we each
scouted a possibility. Christy went far
right, while I stayed a little closer to the river. Neither of us found a route we particularly
liked. Instead, we decided to walk up
one of the calmer stretches while towing the
kayaks. This was easier than carrying
them, but ultimately we had to work harder later on to
avoid deep pools and more rapids. We
carried the kayaks to the base of one of the giant boulders, which still had a
little shade. We stopped there for lunch
and did some people-watching. Pillar
Falls was a very busy place, as all of the motor
boaters and some of the kayakers stop there to avoid the portage.
After
eating we resumed the portage. We
alternated between floating our kayaks through pools and carrying them over
rocks. We were finally able to get back
in the kayaks and continued upstream. On
our return, we saw that someone in a rental kayak had gone the wrong way while
portaging and lost control of their boat.
It was stuck in an eddy, with no hope of getting it out. Oops. I’m sure that
the folks at AWOL Adventure Sports were thrilled.
We
passed a couple more tributary waterfalls and an interesting cave before a
roaring wall of whitewater came into view.
Our first glimpse of Shoshone Falls was incredible, and the view grew
more impressive as we paddled closer. We
paddled to the River-Left side, as the current grew
stronger closer to the falls. We got out
and scrambled up a riverside boulder for a perch with a fantastic view of the
falls. We hung out there for a bit, and watched a family on the next boulder take turns
jumping into the river. We also watched
several kayakers paddle right to the very base of the falls. This isn’t recommended, as the water is very
turbulent there, but they got away with it.
We
did paddle closer, but hugged the River-Left
side. This gave us a different perspective
on the falls. Then we retreated
downstream a bit before crossing to the River-Right
side. We aimed for an old building there
that is part of the power plant. I was pleased
that most of the power plant was hidden from view from the base. The view from the River-Right
side was impressive as well, and offered a very different perspective of the
waterfall.
We
headed back later that afternoon. We
made good time to Pillar Falls, but knew that the
portage would take some time. We ran
into another group that was also portaging, and one of the guys was either
crazy or drunk or just a badass. He had a kayak under each arm,
and was running down the rocks adjacent to the rapids. He returned, and
asked us if we wanted a hand with our kayaks.
We weren’t going to turn that opportunity down. He took Christy’s boat, which enabled us to
carry mine together. That meant we only
had to make one trip, which saved a lot of time and effort. We thanked him for the help,
and made quick work of the 2 miles back to Centennial Park.
We
stopped for dinner in Twin Falls before driving north to the Sawtooths. We passed
through Ketchum and Sun Valley, and arrived at the
Galena Summit Overlook at sunset. From
there, we headed down into the Sawtooth Valley to look for a campsite. I was hopeful that we wouldn’t have trouble
finding a spot on a Sunday evening. We
decided to try Alturas Lake first. We
stopped at the tent campground, and found a couple of
available spots. We set up the hammocks at
dusk and went to bed early, exhausted from a long day in the sun.
Back to Idaho
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