We’ve got the need for speed! And that’s just what our guests got when they departed on the Beemers Jet Boat exploration of the free flowing Snake River and Hell’s Canyon.
The day’s gray start didn’t dampen the spirits of our intrepid expedition as two jet boats full of guests and staff roared out to brave the rapids, look for wildlife and observe the amazing geologic structures of the Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area along the Snake River. This section of the Snake is free flowing; that is, the downhill flow of the river’s torrents are not impeded by humankind’s little concrete contrivances called dams.
A brief stop at Cache Creek to stretch their legs reinvigorated the group to forge on, all the way to the confluence with the Salmon River and up to the site of the 1903 sinking of the sternwheeler Imnaha. If the mighty steamship couldn’t make it, it seemed like a good place to turn around and head back downstream! After all, it was almost lunchtime.
The rapids may have looked even bigger going in this direction, but lunch was waiting downstream. At a beautiful spot on the river, the venue overlooked anglers trying for trophy steelhead trout along the banks and from boats straining against the swift current. When lunch concluded, the jet boats continued on to the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers at Clarkston, Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho, some 450 miles inland from the sea!
Meanwhile, another group of guests set out via motor coach on the trail along Clearwater River into Nez Perce country. Along with local guide and historical interpreter Miguel Inzunza, historian Jim Rawls and National Geographic guest lecturer Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, guests were hot on the trail of the Lewis & Clark expedition and the Corps of Discovery. Journal entries of the captains were descriptive enough that encampment locations and sites of Nez Perce encounters can be identified even today. Without the help of the Nez Perce, the Corps of Discovery surely would have failed, and in fact, probably perished before reaching the Pacific Ocean that they yearned to see.
Late in the afternoon we all ‘rendezvoused’ at the Nez Perce Historical Park. Cultural aspects of Nez Perce life were discussed by park rangers. Art and cultural artifacts from the amazing collection were on display.
In the evening, the day concluded with the presentation of the guest slideshow after dinner. It was a fitting way to end our expedition of discovery along the great rivers of the west, for the morning brings disembarkation and saying farewell to new friends and shipmates who all shared an amazing week of adventures.
