The National Geographic Sea Lion docked overnight in the town of Clarkston, Washington. The early risers amongst us were greeted by a beautiful sunrise illuminating both the Snake River and the high desert hillsides while numerous small aluminum craft were fishing for salmon and steelhead. At 8:30 the group divided and stepped onto two jet boats, which headed south into Hells Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America. The skilled captains smoothly navigated their craft through rapids, shallows and narrow channels guiding us just over 50 miles up the Snake River.
Although a seemingly barren landscape, the canyon is rich in history, abundant with wildlife and comprised of interesting geology. Columnar basalt displayed amusing patterns, while the changing colors of the foliage provided quite the contrast with the dominant and stark native bunch grasses.
Ancient Nez Perce trails; pictographs and camping sights led us deeper into the canyon. Wildlife sightings included; bighorn sheep, mule deer, a lone river otter, chukar, numerous great blue herons, peregrine falcons, geese, merganser, turkeys, and even black bear scat!
The late afternoon provided the option to jump aboard a comfy bus for 20 minutes and visit the Nez Perce National Historic Park in Idaho. While there we watched an extremely well made and powerful film about the Nez Perce as well as toured the engaging museum. The film touched on the tragic history of their people, but it was especially moving for how it shared the current efforts within the tribe to not let the language and culture be forgotten by the youth.
It was a special day and although tired, everyone seemed to be touched by the history and extra appreciative of this wonderful part of the world.
