Jet-boat ride down the Snake River in Hells Canyon, OR/ID

Saturday, Sept 2, 2017  -  continued

The drive to our jet-boat ride was so beautiful I had to make it a separate post. This post will be the jet-boat ride and what we saw.

This is Dusty, our Captain/guide on our tour today.  He reviewed safety items and also told us that the boat had three diesel engines that turned the jet pump drives, and that it only drafted 18 inches of water with full occupancy of passengers.

There are many mountain peaks along the Snake River. Hells Canyon is a 10-mile wide canyon located along the border of eastern Oregon, eastern Washington and western Idaho. It is North America's deepest river gorge at 7,993 feet at Idaho's Seven Devils Mountain range to the east.

We saw 4 black bears during our ride. This is the first one and he was moving away. He didn't like us being so close.

This is one of the larger rapids we went across. Tic did great with this picture considering we were moving quickly and rocking side to side.

More rapids.

This is the only bald eagle picture. As you can perhaps tell, it was a trick to get this picture with the boat moving & rocking. We saw a total of 3 bald eagles and 1 osprey. 

We stopped and docked here. Several passengers got off the boat and took a short hike to overlook the class 4 rapids we just crossed. Tic took this picture to show how clear the river was. We are looking straight down into the river. This is not a reflection.

This picture is to show the white line on the rocks. Our captain told us that this last spring the water was at the white line on the rocks. He said there was more snow runoff than there had been in several years.

This is Granite Creek flowing into the Snake River.

Wow, look at the size of this black bear. He posed for a moment then headed up the hill.

Look at the ruggedness of these cliffs going directly into the river.

This is a good shot of our jet-boat. We are docked at a sandy beach. Several went swimming.

Most people got off the boat. I put my feet in the water. It was cool, but not bad. The people that swam said once you got used to it, the water temperature was not bad.

Look at the massive size of this cliff.  Also imagine how high the water was in the spring.

We are headed up this rapid just after swimming.

This black bear, which is cinnamon colored, was on the move as soon as it heard the boat engines. There was also a smaller black colored black bear that disappeared before we could get a picture of it. Black bears can be black (most common), brown, cinnamon, blond, white (e.g. the Kermode or Spirit bear) and even a bluish-gray (e.g. the Glacier bear).

It was a fun ride. I think being late in the day 4pm - 6pm made it good for seeing animals and birds.