BETA
3-4 days, plus a couple more if continuing through the Upper Owyhee. Expect lots of fast moving flat water with excellent scenery that gets better as you move downstream, broken up by interesting rapids that often need to be puzzled out, whether they are run or portaged.
Stream: This is a wonderful trip in SE Oregon/SW Idaho. The run starts with a slow float through Duck Valley. There are many meanders, and depending on where you put in could take twenty minutes to float through, or hours.
The valley comes to an end in a cool way. After meandering through the flats, the river turns toward the prominent cliff band on the west side of the valley and bores through a cleft in the rock wall, leaving the flatland behind and trading the views for tall canyon walls with no transition period, very cool to float through.
Behind the wall.
Once in the canyon, the whitewater starts to ramp up. Class II rapids that can be a bit blind due to brush give way to more open and fun class III. We were on the lookout for "Tombstone", which is marked as the largest rapid in this section on the BLM map.
Fun read and run.
Maybe this tombstone shaped rock was it?
The rapid next to the tombstone shaped rock was small, but it marked the beginning of the most exciting section of the first onslaught of rapids as the river approached a left bend in the canyon. The largest rapid had some boulders in the middle the water pushed towards, it was best to go right through some small ledges.
Downstream the flow of the rapids was better, more open with higher visibility and deeper routes.
The first five miles of whitewater climaxed at a blind rapid we read and ran with some caution, starting center-right, ending center-left to avoid a rock in the middle at the bottom. This was fun and splashy and ended in a pool.
Below here the whitewater began to ease, eventually to the point it was just swiftly moving water with the occasional small maneuver. If you see a campsite you could make work, take it. We saw one on the right that only had a small patch of sand and some shade that we passed up because it felt too early to stop, but it ended up being the best site we saw all day.
The rest of our day was mostly easy floating, with a couple small but fun and scenic surprises.
We were able to source our water from springs the whole trip other than one day, so didn't need to filter much. This one on river right in the stretch above Holdup Canyon was the only one we noticed on our first day. We used empty wine bags as water bladders.
The gorges got more scenic as we moved downstream. One gorge had many flat benches, but they were all covered in grass. So if you don't mind making camp in the tall grass, there are many options. If you want something more open you are not going to have good options this first night.
We found a rocky area on river-right near Juniper Creek/Hole Up Canyon with lots of flat stones that we used to create platforms for our tents.
The next day started with more swift flat water (we hadn't seen a true pool yet). Eventually we reached the first of the puzzle sorting style of whitewater in Garat Gorge, where it was nice to have some beta.
Boulder Nest was first and looked a bit ominous from above, but it was nice to know it had an easy, but blind route on the right. Scouting looked a little cumbersome up the boulder slide on the left bank.
Boulder Nest had an easy, but blind line that could be read and run on the right.
This started off a series of rapids that were of the boulder pile variety, but had mostly good lines.
Pipeline was up next. A ledge with a significant hole. Paddlers have reported going left of the ledge along the bank, but many have pitoned the wall over there as it extends into the current. At our flow there was a clean boof over the hole, and an easy scout/portage on the right.
Raft Bridge. Scout from the large boulders on river-left. Priscilla and I ran center-center. The rapid was straight forward, but had large sieves waiting outside the line. Sage and Michael were able to shlep boats through the large boulders along the bank.
Tight Squeeze was next, just before the gorge opened up. The scout is easy on the right. Priscilla and I ran left, while Sage and Michael did a partial portage on the right, managing a somewhat tricky class III+ corner.
Michael negotiating the slightly tricky corner.
Split River occurs at an island where Garat Gorge starts to open up. The best scout was from the island in the center, but this might be tricky at higher flows and not a good option for a raft. The left of the island was my favorite boof of the trip, a clean and deep ledge. The right channel is run center, moving left at the bottom to avoid a terribly undercut boulder (easy move though).
Right side of Split River. The horribly undercut rock is just downstream of Michael, easy to avoid.
The canyon then opens up, and around the corner is Heartbreak Hotel, the first of what I would call the big rapids. We all ended up taking the portage on the right. There was definitely a line that most class V boaters would have a hard time passing up, but also a couple sieves, holes and tricky cross-currents.
Portaging Heartbreak Hotel.
There was a short, but entertaining class III-ish fade out section below the Heartbreak Hotel, then the water calmed itself down as it reached Garat Crossing and our lunch stop. Boaters are required to stop here and fill out a permit to float the rest of the river.
Garat Crossing, from our lunch spot. Another group of boaters was putting in here. They had been able to drive to within 1/4 mile or so of the registration box, then needed to hike their gear and packrafts the last bit.
The next section is entirely devoid of rapids as I recall, just fast moving flat water, and at some point I do think we encountered our first pool.
Side hike at the Tules.
We were on the lookout for water and camp, we detoured up Battle Creek to get some less agriculturally affected water, and it was a little less brown, but definitely required filtering. The only weather of the trip rolled in while we were filtering water, and after saddling back up we got hit with hail for about 15 minutes before the skies cleared back up and it got sunny again.
Battle Creek.
We considered camping at the mouth of a side creek, but made the long push down to Deep Creek and were glad we did, it was the best camp we had seen yet! The pack rafters that had put on at Garat Crossing while we were there had raced down to grab the confluence camp, and we went to the beach about a hundred yards up Deep Creek.
Speaking of paddling up the creek, we were amused by what was coming down the creek, thousands of Mormon Crickets. It was one of those things you have to see to really understand, so if you've seen a swarm in eastern Oregon or Idaho before you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, it's quite the situation. Priscilla and I had seen swarms of them before, but it was another experience on the river.
We set up camp and caught our first fish of the trip, whose bellies were full of the crickets.
That night we hiked up to the rim at the suggestion of Lee Baker, and were glad we did.
The next day was wild, so many crickets were in the water and brush along the banks it was all we could talk about. Before long certain crickets had names and we tried to estimate how many there were, once the estimates reached 10,000 visible at a time we realized it was futile.
Crickets clinging to a wall.
10 miles downstream and the crickets and boaters were approaching Boulder Jam, another boulder pile rapid that looks intimidating, is difficult to scout, but with a line that proves easy once committed to it down the right bank.
What you can see of Boulder Nest from above.
Boulder Nest from below. At high water the wall downstream might be thing, but it was no factor at our flow.
A percentage of the crickets didn't make it through Boulder Jam, but there were still plenty in the water.
Entering the canyon above Owyhee Falls.
Eventually we reached the left bend that signaled Owyhee Falls. The pack rafters had gotten there first and were portaging along a trail high on the left bank, first gear, then boats. We had beta that portaging at river-level on the right was the way to go at this water level. There was a line through the class V rapid, but the consequences were immense so it was an easy choice to portage after an obligatory scout. At the bottom of the portage is a spring coming out of the right bank, so we filled our plastic bladders and ate lunch.
At the bottom of the right side portage, the class III+ runout of Owyhee Falls required some attention, and an effort to stay off the right wall.
We noticed another spring coming in from the left bank downstream a short ways, and that the crickets had been almost entirely wiped out in Owyhee Falls.
The packrafters were ahead scouting from the left bank when we got to the lead in for Thread the Needle. A straight forward rapid once you know where to go, but a rapid that is difficult to get eyes on and where going down the wrong chute would be bad. After we all ran the lead in rapid and eddied on the right, I ferried over to the left and scrambled up to a viewpoint on a large rock which was the first place I could get a could get a good look at the line, and communicated the route to Priscilla who led through while Sage and Michael followed. It is worth noting if the water was higher, that where I got out might not be an option. It is worth considering scouting from above the lead in like the pack rafters did.
The line through Eye of the Needle.
More beautiful floating followed downstream as the whitewater faded.
There was another series of rapids downstream called Heaven's Window that proved easy to navigate.
These were mostly class II, that you could make class III if you tried.
Flows: We were on the river May 11-16, 2024. 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.
Access: The put in area at Duck Valley in Idaho is tricky because of private land. Call either the tribe or Owyhee River shuttles for access information. The take out is at Three Forks in Oregon, the access road to get there is notorious, though in good conditions only the last part usually requires clearance. That said, Priscilla has driven the worst part of the shuttle road in a Toyota Yaris alongside Thomas O'Keefe in his Prius, and both made it without problems, but absolutely do not try that yourself. We drove it in a Toyota Tundra a couple years later and it still felt rough in a truck, I wouldn't have wanted to take a Subaru down it that day. People get stuck on the flat part of the shuttle road all the time because even a little precipitation can turn the clay/dirt roads into "Gumbo", and even the rowdy vehicles don't usually make it through then. Make sure you have information about the road conditions before you make the haul out there, many groups have been thwarted, despite their 4WD trucks that "can go anywhere".
Access: The put in area at Duck Valley in Idaho is tricky because of private land. Call either the tribe or Owyhee River shuttles for access information. The take out is at Three Forks in Oregon, the access road to get there is notorious, though in good conditions only the last part usually requires clearance. That said, Priscilla has driven the worst part of the shuttle road in a Toyota Yaris alongside Thomas O'Keefe in his Prius, and both made it without problems, but absolutely do not try that yourself. We drove it in a Toyota Tundra a couple years later and it still felt rough in a truck, I wouldn't have wanted to take a Subaru down it that day. People get stuck on the flat part of the shuttle road all the time because even a little precipitation can turn the clay/dirt roads into "Gumbo", and even the rowdy vehicles don't usually make it through then. Make sure you have information about the road conditions before you make the haul out there, many groups have been thwarted, despite their 4WD trucks that "can go anywhere".
The shuttle is about 5 hours one way, so well worth hiring someone. We were very glad we didn't have 10 extra hours of driving to undue shuttle before making the drive home. We used Barker River Expeditions, they were expensive, but got the job done right and have access agreements that optimize the put in situation.
Jacob Cruser, Sage Cruser, Michael Jensen, Priscilla Macy-Cruser
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