Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Snake River canyon hunting experiences?

I am zeroing in on this area as an area I want to focus on for rifle hunting of deer, bear, and elk in the coming years. I would most likely be hunting the Oregon side. As I understand it, this is VERY rugged country and the wise man either drops in from the top on horses, or is taken up the river on a boat and hunts up.

I would appreciate any knowledge and experience and tips and so on that anyone has!

Thank you.

-jeff

top down is highly preferrable, the walk up thats teep broken shale sucks big ballz. been doing it for about 15 years now and always produces godo lightly pressured deer btu is not for the faint of heart either

By saying the "Oregon" side I assume you mean Hell's Canyon and not the Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls right? If so you are right about it being tough country. I hunt the Idaho side, and for deer (mulies) and bear I like to push the brushy draws at lower elevations near the river. You see elk there too but I think the better elk hunting is along the forested rims and ridges. Across from Pittsburg Landing and the Oregon side of Brownlee Res. looks good. Don't forget your shotgun...there are lots of chuckar and forest grouse.

I hear you gotta watch out for falling rockets over in that canyon.



You can't get away with mentioning snake river without expecting someone to derail your topic a bit.

Jeff, it's a Friday.

Forgive me but.... you've been hijacked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsq3dWTrRWA

No worries Dave! That's about the most polite hijack I've ever seen anyway <g>.

Hey, I'm just glad someone noticed the topic. Was starting to think it was gonna die quietly...

Yes, I'd be hunting Hells Canyon if I was on the Oregon side. So... coming in on a boat and then setting up a camp a bit up off the river and hunting up in the mornings is not so hot, huh? Dang. I kind of like the idea of being IN the canyon.

Well, perhaps a drop-camp with horses is the way to go.

What I LOVE about that canyon is that I'm hearing it's very rugged. I like that. I'm seeing in the reg's that it's a tag witha high success rate. And it sounds like a guy is hunting relatively undisturbed critters. I like all of those things!

-jeff

We put a boat in on the Oregon side below Oxbow dam, crossed the river and camped on a little flat right next to shore on the Idaho side, then hiked up.

And up, and up, and, you get the picture...

Two ways to look at it. You can hike uphill to hunt and then drag some big elk/deer downhill, or hike down and then drag uphill. I'd vote for the former.

Also, when you walk uphill in the morning you're fresh, then walk downhill in the evening when your butt is dragging.

There is a lot of game on up there, though, so it is worth the effort.

Jim,

That's sort of my thinking. I really don't like doing steep downhills in the morning; it hurts my knees.

Does that river require any kind of special boat to do what you describe, or will any ol' "ski boat" do it?

-jeff

On monday, while fishing for Steelhead, I saw about 40-50 head of elk on the West side of the river just above Heller Bar. The elk were right on a nice flat, near the river but....we didn't see a single bull in the bunch.

There are parts of the river especially below the Hells Canyon dam itself that are pretty rough, but between Brownlee and Hells Canyon the river runs wide and smooth mostly.

We used a "regular ol' boat" about 12-14' long with a small outboard like this:
http://www.apolloduck.com/new/detail.phtml?id=380

We put in at a boat ramp and rode downriver a mile or so to a small cove where a creek met the river and put in there. It looked like a great spot to find rattlers and black bears coming down to drink. We kept expecting to hear one outside the tent but all was well.

Go here:
http://www.cbr.washington.edu/crisp/hydro/
and click on the links to Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon. Not the greatest pictures of the country but shows how it starts out right from the river. Not real technical hill climbing, not like you'd need ropes and stuff, but it goes way up and up. Once you get on top there are valleys and bowls and such, some pockets of timber but mostly open grass and brush.

If there was ever a reason to get a real mountain rifle like a Kimber WSM this would be the place to justify it.

Jim,

Thank you so much for the links! Extremely helpful. I'll go click 'em now.

Edited to add- wow, the terrain is sure different around those three dams!

You guys hunting deer or elk over there? How'd you do?

-jeff

It was a controlled hunt and I didn't have a tag, was just going for the weekend camping trip and to act as a pack animal for a friend. He was after mulies so, of course, we saw three different herds of elk with some real nice bulls well within range, had a decent black bear run a few yards right past us, but only saw a couple buck deer too far away to shoot.

But it was fun even with all the hard hiking, there was lots and lots of sign, particularly bear and elk, and some magnificent views.

And at that time, at least (around 1995), no roads in that area and even better no ATV's running all over creation. We didn't see another soul for two days, to me that alone was worth the effort.

Guys I have been told that is limited camp sites along the river I don't know if that was true or not?

JIm-I'd be for thinking a jet would be best in there, it sounds like you use a prop and get away with it is that right?

Thx
Dober

Yeah, Mark, that's what I'm wondering too. If I can get up there with a cheapo prop boat... heh heh... then that gives me something to save money for, since it's probably not next season but the one after than I can hunt there.

I'd bring an extra prop for sure. OTOH, that's a big river and they've got it damned up in several places so it might be more like a moving lake than a river.

On the Oregon side, the Hell's Canyon elk tag is 90% public land and has a 40-something percent success rate. Plus it looks like I can pull a mulie tag every other year or so up there too, which has a 50-ish percent success rate... and it's nice rugged country to say the least... and I'm hearing tales of undisturbed animals... so... preliminary indications are that I will be focusing some attention on that area.

The idea of a boat is nice because I can beg, borrow, or buy one and it won't need a stall and vetinarian visits in the off-season. However, one guy so far on this thread has said that going in "down low" is not the way to go.

In PM's, I've been talking with a guy who's guided a bunch there in years past; I'll see if I can get him to the thread. He wasn't real hot on the idea of the horse drop camps, saying that the operators tend to drop people in spots that are convenient to THEM, not so much where the hunting is best. Heck if I know.

-jeff

That would be my way of thinking as well (about the drop camps).

Dober

Yeah... however I've heard it said that "a guy would have to be insane to drop into that canyon without horses or mules" or words to that effect.

I like the idea of boating in, packing a camp up away from the river a ways (well, or not... who knows, maybe right on the river would be great), and then hunting UP in the morning. On my last elk hunt, I found that camping on the edge of a nearly impossible canyon, expecting to drop into it every morning, just doesn't work like a guy might hope. At least it didn't for this guy.

On the other hand I can go UP in the morning with gusto! Don't know why that would be.

But the lay of the land might make it such that getting all the way up to where the elk are is not practical on a daily basis from a camp by the river...

-jeff

If I were taking a prop boat up into Hells Canyon, I would put in a Heller Bar, take a spare prop, and then do a lot of praying. Breaking the prop is only one of the things you might have to plan for. How about knocking the lower unit off your engine? You really are stuck then. Take a jet boat or have someone with a jet boat take you up the river and pick you up. As my guide told me last week, "If you take a prop up here you either better be damned lucky or damned stupid." It can get really expensive in a hurry.

It's pretty much jetboat.

Our paid hunters used to come in from Lewiston, or somewhere near there, and we'd meet them where Temperance Creek meets the Snake. Then, we'd pack them and their gear up to camp.

Yeah, you can pack down on foot from the top and kill stuff, but you'd better take fire makin's, a knife and fork and lots of ketchup because you might end up eating an elk right there.

I was packing elk quarters up to the top (at Warnock Corral) and horse feed down (camp was near the cabin on Temperance Creek) for several days and we had all our stock tied up either with my daily pack or with hunters. I came upon two guys who were about five miles down from the top on the Temperance Creek trail. Oh yeah, and they had two decent six-point bulls down. They were in serious trouble and they knew it.

They offered me $100 each to haul their bulls to the top.

Sorry, all of my horses and mules were full of elk pieces. I saw then again on the way down and they were, let's say, just a bit disheartened. And I saw them on the way up the next day (the price offered went up to $500 cash money) and on the way down. Hey, my critters were full. On the third day, our hunters were getting pretty full, so the outfitter sent me up with four empty horses (with Deckers) and orders to help the guys out for free.

And they were GONE.

One of the mysteries of my life will always be where the Hell those guys went. I saw them both, and all their pieces of elk, on the way down and I was where they should have been at about 10:00 AM the next day. They did not have time to run out and get a skyline helicopter and there were no other horse/mule units in the area.

Anyway, it's fine to hunt the top on foot; I always liked Monument Ridge, Lightning Creek and the Indian trail(whose name I've forgotten) to the west of Warnock Corral. Or you can camp on the river and hunt up; that way, all elk parts are a down-haul.

Personally, I don't like drop camps because most outfitter usually places them in a circle, so a rider can service the loops of camps in a single day's ride. That approach doesn't necessarily put you into good game country. And, of course, the outfitter is ALWAYS going to save his best game country for his guided hunters. That's just the way it is.

You know, it's one thing to sit here, all nice and cozy, typing schit into the computer and acting all manly. It is a totally different matter to stand at Warnock Corral or PO Saddle (or , for that matter, even Granny Springs) and gaze down into the canyon. Even better, to be a few miles DOWN INTO that miserable bastard of a canyon. This, my friends, is about as rough a country as exists. A wise man respects it and he takes absolutely no chances in this country. You can die there ... and I've come very, very close.

Steve

So is it tougher than the upper Minam in the Eagle Cap? I've been thinking about poking around further east but I'm not hauling ponies that far if the terrain is any tougher than that. I lost one horse this year and hope to never have that happen again, although I do know it's a risk we all take.

I wouldn't even entertain the thought of taking a prop boat between Heller bar and Hells Canyon Dam. That is expert only water and I know guys who won't take their own jet boats up that section simply because they don't know the water well enough. Almost every year a jet boat goes down in that section.

If you do start at the river, and elk are the target, I'd definetly plan on taking a lightweight spike camp and staying up at the elevations the elk are at. The trek up and down 3000-5000 vertical feet everyday will wear down even the toughest guys after several days. Especially since it may well take a couple hours of hard hiking just to get where the elk are hanging. And a two hour hike back down in the dark, in that country is no joking matter. The country right above the river can be deathly if you hit the wrong place and get into the cliffs. If you do plan on hunting off the river, I'd go as late in the season as possible and hope for a bunch of snow on the top.

I've hunted from the top many times and much prefer to glass down and spot elk and then move on them if they are within reach.