In last week’s post I discussed a rafting trip I recently took on the Snake River, through Hell’s Canyon. We ended that blog post with our first night of camping on the Snake River.
Day 2 of our trip was very exciting. We encountered the largest and most challenging rapids of our trip on Day 2 and had a lot of easier and fun whitewater as well. Rapids are graded on a scale of 1 to 6, depending on the degree of difficulty in navigating them. Class 1 rapids are ripples that are very easy to navigate, while Class 6 water is considered too dangerous to navigate. The degree of difficulty can change with water flow and river levels, so tough rapids are always scouted from upriver by the raft captains before they tackle that stretch of river. It’s on the more challenging rapids that you really get to appreciate the skill of your guides.
Most of the rapids in Hell’s Canyon are Class 2 and 3. These are a lot of fun in that they are bumpy and you’ll likely get wet from the spray of the waves. The guides generally don’t consider these too much of a challenge. There are several very memorable Class IV rapids in the upper stretch of the river which the guides do feel are difficult and are where a raft is most likely to flip or catapult you into the water. As such, it is also the most likely spot you could get injured.
Our first class IV rapid was Wild Sheep Rapid. I was in a dorey that day and filmed our navigation of Wild Sheep from the back seat. I think the following video fairly accurately depicts what the experience of navigation was like. Please give it a look:
Wild Sheep Rapid was a wild experience. My adrenaline was surging, and we got soaked by several large waves. The dorey was flooded to our knees and we needed to bail it, so I missed out on the opportunity to get pictures of the crew of our paddling boat getting thrown into the water. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the guide and crew members were all back in their raft within a minute. But it must have been a shock to get flung into the cold water.
After making sure everyone had made it through Wild Sheep, we headed to our next rapids which was another Class IV. This was Granite Rapid, which was rough and got us soaked, but less so than Wild Sheep. The video below shows our ride through it; check it out:
There was a lot more whitewater on the river — mostly class II, but a few rapids were Class III. These rapids were a lot of fun to navigate, as you can see from the following two videos.
The river becomes flatter the closer you get to Lewiston, but there is whitewater throughout, and that alone makes the Snake a fun river to raft.
There is a small risk to rafting, but there is a risk to everything one does in life including going for a walk or car ride. I never felt in any danger and am grateful to have been with skilled guides who knew how to navigate challenging water.
Next week I’ll conclude this series of posts on Hell’s Canyon.
