Vistors

General Knowledge

In Idaho, backpackers are the dominant recreational group between June and September, with the alpine lakes of the Seven Devil Mountains being the main attraction. Equestrians dominate the Oregon side with heaviest use associated with spring and fall big game hunt season. However, the lower elevations offer wilderness recreational opportunities year round. The diversity in elevation can also cause unpredictable weather, with temperatures ranging from nighttime lows of 30 degrees in alpine country to over 100 degrees in lower elevations near the Snake River.

Activities

While in Hells Canyon, you can enjoy challenging recreational activities like hiking, backpacking, climbing, kayaking, canoeing, rafting, horse packing, bird watching, and stargazing.

Regulations

Unless otherwise specified, no motorized equipment or mechanical transport, with the exception of wheelchairs, is allowed. This includes the use of motor vehicles, motorboats, motorized equipment, bicycles, hang gliders, wagons, carts, portage wheels, and the landing of aircraft including helicopters, unless provided for in specific legislation. This is generally true for all federal lands managed as designated wilderness.


In a few areas some exceptions allowing the use of motorized equipment or mechanical transport are described in the special regulations in effect for a specific area.

These general prohibitions have been implemented for all national forest wildernesses in order to implement the provisions of the Wilderness Act of 1964. The Wilderness Act requires management of human-caused impacts and protection of the area's wilderness character to insure that it is "unimpaired for the future use and enjoyment as wilderness." Use of the equipment listed as prohibited in wilderness is inconsistent with the provision in the Wilderness Act which mandates opportunities for solitude or primitive recreation and that wilderness is a place that is in contrast with areas where people and their works are dominant.


Entering the Hells Canyon Wilderness with more than eight  people is prohibited.

Except when authorized by a Forest Officer, camping in excess of 14 days during any 30 day period is prohibited.

STOCK USERS

Entering the Hells Canyon Wilderness with more than sixteen head of stock per party is prohibited.

Hitching or tethering of horses or other saddle or pack animal to trees at campsites except for the purposes of loading, unloading, saddling, unsaddling is prohibited.

It is prohibited to possess or store hay or crop products that are not state certified weed-free, to include any hay, hay cubes, straw, grain or other crop or mulch product within all congressionally designated wilderness and trailheads leading into wilderness within the boundaries of the National Forest System of the Pacific Northwest Region in the States of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Bibliography

And helpful cites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Canyon_Wilderness_%28Oregon_and_Idaho%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Canyon

http://wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=wildView&WID=239

http://www.usdirtbiker.com/Maps.htm
http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/hell-s-canyon-wilderness-outdoor-pp2-guide-cid402059.html
http://www.lb9.uscourts.gov/webcites/10documents/Hells_wilderness.pdf
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/wallowa-whitman/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5213868

Controversy

 After completion of large hydropower dams on the Columbia River in the 1930s through the 1950s,
several entities sought approval from the Federal Power Commission to build dams on the Snake River, including a high dam in Hells Canyon. In 1955, the commission issued a license to the Idaho Power
Company to build a three-dam complex in the canyon. The first of the three, Brownlee Dam, was finished in 1958. Oxbow Dam, 12 miles downstream Brownlee Dam, was finished in 1961. Hells Canyon Dam, 26 miles below Oxbow, was completed in 1967. The complex, which provides about 70 percent of Idaho's hydroelectricity, blocks migration of salmon and other anadromous fish upstream of Hells Canyon Dam.

Trails

There are approximately 360 miles of trails crossing Hells Canyon Wilderness. The extensive trail system mostly follows old Forest Service access routes to fires, and stock trails used by ranchers to move livestock to remote salting areas and watering holes. Many routes follow ridges and traverse moderate slopes and benchlands, while others climb steep slopes.
Two National trails are found at various elevations: Western Rim/Summit Ridge Recreation Trail at the upper elevation, and Nez Perce Historic Trail near the Snake River.

Idaho side trails are located at Black Lake, Windy Saddle, and Pittsburg Landing.

Roads leading to wilderness trailheads and viewpoints for either area are mostly single lane, and suitable for low speed use only.

Other recreational trails include:

Major Trailheads from Enterprise, Oregon side

Buck Creek NRA Trailhead (Trail #1884)
PO Saddle Trailhead (Trail #1774)
Hat Point Trailhead (Trail #1752)
Warnock Corral Trailhead (Trail #1778)
Dug Bar Trailhead (Trail #1774)

Major Trailheads from Riggins, Idaho side

Black Lake Campground (Trail #214)
Heaven's Gate Trailhead (Trail #101)
Windy Saddle Trailhead and Windy Saddle Horse Camp (Trail #124)
Snake River Trailhead (Trail #102)

Rivers

Three National Wild and Scenic Rivers run through the Hells Canyon Wilderness: the Snake, Imnaha, and Rapid rivers:

Snake River

66.9 miles Total
32.5 miles are designated "wild"
34.4 miles are designated "scenic."

Imnaha River

77 miles Total
In 1988, 15 miles were designated wild
4 miles were designated scenic
58 miles were designated recreational
Only a portion of the Wild and Scenic Imnaha is located within Hells Canyon Wilderness

Rapid River

26.8 miles total  from the headwaters of the main stem to the National Forest boundary
The segment of the West Fork from the wilderness boundary to the main stem are designated wild
The river contains three endangered fish species - chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout

Wilderness Life

Vegetation

A variety of vegetation grows in Hells Canyon. Sagebrush and Bunchgrass grow in lower parts of the canyon with deciduous bushes and trees along the numerous streams that run into Hells Canyon. Trees are scattered throughout the Oregon side of the Wilderness, but concentrated on north slopes and in stream bottoms  Englemann spruce and sub-alpine fir grow at the highest levels of the Wilderness, with Western larch, Douglas fir, and Ponderosa pine found between the two extremes. Prickly pear cactus and poison ivy are fairly common as well.

The Idaho portion of Hells Canyon is characterized by three geologic-vegetative regions. The upper areas are alpine and subalpine with several lakes and geologic formations of glacial origin. Vegetation is sparse and broken by large areas of rock. The middle portions contain dense forests of larch, lodgepole pine, and true firs. Lower elevations are characterized by dry, rocky, barren, steep slopes breaking into the Snake River and its major tributaries.

Animals

Wildlife is abundant in Hells Canyon Wilderness. Black bear, cougar, elk, deer, mountain goat, chukar, and bighorn sheep are common. There have been reports, though unverified, of grizzly bear in the Wilderness. Reintroduced wolves in Idaho have at least passed through the area, and Peregrine falcon, bald and golden eagles can also be seen.

History

The geologic history of the rocks of Hells Canyon began 300 million years ago with an arc of volcanoes that emerged from the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Over millions of years, the volcanoes subsided and limestone built up on the underwater platforms. Between 130 and 17 million years ago, the ocean plate carrying the volcanoes collided, and became part of the North American continent. A period of volcanic activity followed, and much of the area was covered with floods of basalt lava, which smoothed the topography into a high plateau. The Snake River began carving Hells Canyon out of the plateau about 6 million years ago. Significant canyon-shaping events occurred as recently as 15,000 years ago during a massive outburst flood from Glacial Lake Bonneville in Utah.

The earliest known settlers in Hells Canyon were the Nez Percé tribe. Others tribes visiting the area were the Shoshone-Bannock, Northern Paiute, and Cayuse Indians. The mild winters, and ample plant and wildlife attracted human habitation.

Humans have historically used Hells Canyon Wilderness for farming, ranching and mining activities. Sheep and cattle have grazed this area of Northeastern Oregon since the 1730s, as the Nez  Percé grazed horses and cattle in the main canyons. By the 1800s, homesteaders on the Oregon benchland were grazing sheep, cattle, and horses throughout the valley and canyons. Cattle grazing continues today in a small portion of the Wilderness, as permitted in the 1964 Wilderness Act, which allows some traditional activities to continue as long as wilderness values are not compromised. Some mining has also occurred, primarily on the Idaho side of the Wilderness.

In 1806, three members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition entered the Hells Canyon region along the Salmon River. They turned back without seeing the deep parts of the canyon. It was not until 1811 that the Wilson Price Hunt expedition explored Hells Canyon while seeking a shortcut to the Columbia River. Hunger and cold forced them to turn back, as did many explorers who were defeated by the canyon's inaccessibility. There remains no evidence in the canyon of their attempts; their expedition journals are the only documentation.