Rafting on the Salmon River

Today was our adventure day of white water rafting on the Salmon River.  This is the portion of the river that Lewis and Clark explored hoping to use but the waters were too swift and they continued on horseback instead.  We found out just how swift they can be today!  We had a wonderful time.  You know the rafting is good when locals come with you because they want to be on the river while the water is so high and fast.  We had a grandmother and granddaughter from Salmon join us for our trip today.  The grandmother has rafted many times on the Salmon so it was like we had two guides.  She also shared more about the area with us so we learned a little more about this beautiful section of Idaho.  We had a blast!  We rafted 13 miles down the Salmon with a stop at an old mine and a stop for lunch beside the river.  The sky was the beautiful blue again today and the canyon we traveled through was equally as beautiful.  The river is very cold, as you would expect from mountain run-off!  We found out just how cold as we approached our first set of rapids.  Our guide (Rich) was informative and no one fell out, so apparently he's pretty good at his job too!  We were all wet but it was worth it.

Prepared for our journey!

Our view as the rapids approached

We finally saw big horn sheep today - three females along the river and one along the road as we were driving back to town.  We still hope to see a male with his big horns and moose also.

She's just above the brush by the river - definitely blends into the rocks!

After dinner tonight we drove up to Williams Lake which is about 10 miles outside Salmon up in the mountains.  The drive was pretty steep but the view was beautiful.

A picture of the valley on our way to Williams Lake

Williams Lake - at 5,200 feet.  

As we made our way back down the mountain we saw a four point buck enjoying dinner himself!

He was nice enough to pose for us.

We have loved our visit to Salmon and would recommend this as a stop for anyone in Idaho.  Tomorrow we leave for Orofino, Idaho and will head over the Continental Divide again as Lewis and Clark worked to find a river that would take them to the Pacific.