Ultimate Salmon River Experience

The evening before your trip, we’ll meet in either Stanley, ID or Salmon, ID (depending on your departure date*) for a pre-trip orientation. This is an opportunity to meet your fellow travelers and trip leader, and ask any last-minute questions. 

*June trips depart from Stanley, ID. August trips depart from Salmon, ID.

Take a scenic flight to the put-in at Indian Creek, where our boats and crew await you. (At certain water levels, we may be lucky enough to put in further upstream at Boundary Creek, which we access by ground shuttle. The trip will start there whenever possible.) 

After an informative safety talk, we take to the pure waters of the breathtaking Middle Fork. Within moments, you’ll experience your first rapid, an appropriate introduction to this river, whose exciting, consistent whitewater doesn’t stop until its confluence with the Main Salmon.

Our high-elevation put-in point rewards us with fantastic alpine scenery, and we spend our first day among deep green forests, dramatic mountains, and crystal clear creeks that pour out of the woods and into the river.

The first day of this Salmon River rafting expedition generally sets the pace for our time on the river. Typically, we spend a few hours on the water in the morning, sometimes stopping for a great hike, a visit to a waterfall or a Native American pictograph, or a soak in a natural hot spring. Come lunchtime, we stop to enjoy a delicious riverside picnic. After feasting and relaxing (or perhaps swimming, a game of Frisbee, or a side hike), we get back into our boats for more exciting whitewater before reaching camp by mid- to late afternoon.

Continuing down the river for the next few days, we’ll see the scenery change from high mountains to gently rolling hills. Thick forests give way to miles of open grassland dotted with cool glades of pine. The views remain stunning, and the whitewater action-packed. Huge rapids like Powerhouse and Pistol Creek are interspersed with less intense yet still thrilling whitewater in the form of wave trains, chutes, and drops. Our journey downstream takes us to more hot springs, alcoves decorated with Sheepeater Indian pictographs, and magnificent Veil Falls, a unique waterfall that plummets freely into a natural amphitheater from a high rock overhang.

Towards the end of this stretch, the Middle Fork rushes into Impassable Canyon, a narrow gorge that creates some of the most high-intensity and continuous whitewater of the trip. Paddle hard through Redside, Rubber, and Hancock rapids, and enjoy the sudden, spectacular change in scenery from wooded hills to the sheer granite walls and huge boulders of Impassable Canyon.

On Day 6, we will reach the confluence with the Main Salmon. The guests who are only floating the Middle Fork will say goodbye and leave the river, heading back to Salmon, Idaho. The rest of us will continue our journey.

As we turn west at the confluence, the flow of the combined rivers more than doubles. At Corn Creek, where our Main Salmon rafting trips typically begin, we bring in the dories and fresh provisions for the continuation of our journey.

The scenery of the Main is distinct from that of the Middle Fork;  we’re traveling through the 2.3 million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. This broad canyon is heavily forested with towering pines and conifers and, early in the season, blanketed with vibrant wildflowers. We may be welcomed to the Main by a family of otters swimming near our boats, a herd of bighorn sheep scaling a steep canyon wall, a giant elk or moose wading in the shallows, or if we’re lucky, a black bear standing sentinel on shore.

With half the gradient and twice the water volume, the Main is a pool and drop river, alternating quiet stretches to look for wildlife or fish, and big, rolling rapids like Five Mile, Big Mallard, and Elkhorn.  We’ll stop at a few of the historical sites, such as Buckskin Bill’s homestead and Jim Moore’s place (maybe you’ll find the fortune he buried in the hillside!), and perhaps a stop and short hike to Barth Hot Springs or the peaceful Yew Grove. The fishing is excellent during these days, and on August trips, warm air and water temperatures encourage frequent refreshing dips in the river.

On day 11, there’s a great swimming hole near French Creek and some of the river’s best rapids, including Ruby, Lake Creek, Lightning Creek, Chair Creek, and Fiddle Creek.  We parallel the Forest Service road and say goodbye to those leaving the trip after the Main. On day 12, we reach Hammer Creek, where the Lower Salmon officially begins.

At this point in the trip, it’s hard to believe that this mighty, deep blue river that rolls through dry, golden canyons is the same high-mountain, clear-water creek that we saw on the Middle Fork. Another significant difference is the water temperature—the river is much warmer here on the Lower, and those of us ready to test it out can swim through Rollercoaster rapid, which marks our entrance to Green Canyon. We’ll stop to visit some ancient pictographs and then continue our whitewater action with rapids like Wright-Way, Demon’s Drop, and Pine Bar Rapids.

As we float along the river, we’ll keep an eye out for the wildlife that inhabits the canyon. Golden eagles, ospreys, and river otters make frequent appearances; if we’re lucky, we might also see beavers, cougars, and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.

After Green Canyon come Cougar and Snow Hole Canyons, each offering a different perspective on the striking scenery around us. All the while, the river slowly unfolds its long and varied history, providing glimpses of old mining and ranching sites, geological displays of basalt formations, remnants of ancient Indian cultures, and the remains of old Chinese stone houses. Entering Snow Hole Canyon, we face some of the biggest, most exciting whitewater of the Lower Salmon: Half & Half, Snow Hole, and China Bar Rapids.

Early-season boaters can experience the challenge of Slide Rapid in Blue Canyon—perhaps the most spectacular of the four gorges through which we’ve traveled. Hikers in the group might enjoy climbing to a vista point for an impressive bird’s-eye view of the river winding through the steep and slender canyon.

Finally, the Salmon merges with the Snake River, again doubling in size on its run north to the Columbia and west to the Pacific Ocean. That last day on the bigger river, we’ll see increased boat traffic and evidence of development as we continue our float.

After passing the confluence with the Grande Ronde, we arrive at our take-out, Heller Bar. Our more than two-week journey has led us through approximately 300 miles of Idaho’s glorious, ever-changing wilderness through the protected areas and back to civilization.  We say goodbye to our guides for a 45-minute van ride to Lewiston, ID, where our journey ends.