Upper Owyhee

                                               

                                                    BETA

                2-3 days. Mostly flat with some class III, one great and long class IV, and a V/P 

                           This is a river with rules, so check out the BLM page for guidance.

We paddled this section after coming down the EF Owyhee, read about that part of the trip here.

Stream: Crutcher's Crossing is the put in for the Upper Owyhee, but we were coming off the East Fork so I can't speak to this access point other than I have read 4WD is needed.  

                                                        Gauge

Toilet, bring your own TP.

We camped at the confluence with the SF Owyhee a few miles below Crutcher's Crossing, a wonderful spot.

The next day there were a couple of small rapids, with a couple holes you could seek out if wanted.

House Rock, an easy move to get right of the rock.

The views were non-stop remarkable.  I had heard how scenic this run was, but it's hard to really grasp how a river can be so beautiful and rugged, so consistently, for so long until you are there.  

This Cabin marks the rapid that stood out the most to me on the trip, the obviously named Cabin Rapid.

People log their runs here, it was neat reading about past trips.  One passage stood out to me from a dad who seemed to be having the trip of a lifetime with his son, and his young son who I hope will look back more fondly of the trip than the experience he seemed to be having at the time ;)

Cabin Rapid was fun, probably the best rapid of the trip including the EF.  It is multi-stage, and can be scouted along a social trail on the left.

Stage 1: Stay left of the big boulders

Stage 2: Read and run center-ish

Stage 3:  At the bottom of an island, get to the right channel for some waves, moving left at the bottom of the channel to stay off the right wall (not difficult).

Stage 4:  Large boulders block the center of the river and appear very dangerous.  We went left of them at our flow, most videos I see rafters go right.  Whatever you choose, do not go into them.

Stage 2

Bottom of stage Stage 3, with the island in the background.

Stage 4, going left of the undercut, room sized boulders.  Most rafters in videos I have seen go right.

Downstream of Cabin is a nice campsite on the right that was occupied by a group of pack rafters that had changed their minds from earlier in the day about where they were camping.  This left us with about 10 miles to the next camp.  

We passed by and read and ran a couple nice class III's before reaching Cable Rapid, another class V.  This one has a long lead in, it is a good idea to scout from above said lead in to scope out eddies for the portage.  Lines existed middle and left on Cable, but like the rest of the Upper Owyhee, mistakes would be highly consequential.

This rapid gets its name from the cable drift boats and rafts can use to help with the portage.  With kayaks it was less hassle just to move our boats over the rocks by hand, running a narrow class III+ chute at the end.

We paddled for a long ways downstream, hoping that distant sand patches would make camps, but they were all sloped and small, not what we were looking for.  The flat water remained swift, and the canyon scenic.

Eventually we reached a small patch of gravel and sand with enough flat space for two tents, and we could have got another one or two in a pinch.

The sun followed the contour of the river-left canyon rim for about an hour, another cool natural moment.

Wizard's Camp.  If you stay there, look for the man in the rocks on the opposite wall.

Rising the next morning, we watched the pack rafters pass by and wished them a good morning.  They said they would be taking off the next day, and we were finishing the run this day so we figured we would leap frog them again.

The packraft group stopped for water at the WF Owyhee, while we continued on. I don't recall any whitewater on this day, but we had the hot springs to look forward to, and did find the best surf spot of the trip along a bedrock shore with an eddy on river-right.

Hot spring trickling down the wall. 

Climbing up to the Three Forks Hot Spring.

A clean hot spring, and one of my favorites I have been to.

A cave looking out towards Three Forks and the take out.

Take out

A wonderful trip, you can see the final canyon section ends just upstream.

The Upper Owyhee is an amazing place.  It is for river-people who like cool rivers.  If you are looking for consistent whitewater, the middle section of the Owyhee is a better option.  If you are looking for more, head to the Upper and East Fork Owyhee.

  
Flows:  We were on the river May 11-16, 2024 (the first few days were on the EF Owyhee.  The flows dropped slowly, nearly stable from 1,200-1,100 the days we were on the water.  The weather on the Owyhee is notoriously fickle, and all sources say to bring gear for both snow and heat.  We got very lucky and aside from a fifteen minute squall that dropped hail while we were paddling, we had 6 days of warm, sunny weather.

EF Owyhee River at Crutcher Crossing, ID - 13176400

Access:  We put in at Duck Valley in Idaho, but the start of the Upper Owyhee is Crutcher's Crossing which is accessed via a 4WD road.  I have not driven the road, so can't speak to it.

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Story/Notes
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On the drive back, we were driving back through central Oregon we were surprised to be passed by the packrafters, who had evidently changed their minds again and taken out a day early.  

We grabbed a hotel in Burns, and rested after a long, remarkable and beautiful week in the Owyhee Canyonlands.

We stopped in Bend on the way back to western Oregon and Sage and Michael learned a lot about surfing.  We found the tuber channel instructive for them, before heading out into the main channel.