Hells Canyon and Beyond

When I traveled to the Northwest last year I thought I had seen almost everything I wanted to see. The two exceptions were Mount St Helens–I was unable to get to Wind Ridge and Spirit Lake on the eastern side due to a bridge washout–and the Columbia River Gorge.

Although I had explored extensively on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, I know that the north side in Washington also has some attractions that I would like to see. Whether or not that would justify another trek of 6-7,000 miles is debatable.

I was watching Jeopardy! Last week when one of the clues was, “At 8,000 feet, it is the deepest canyon in the United States.” The question was, “What is Hells Canyon?”

Well, that got me thinking about where I had seen that name before. With our modern computer age of Google, Yahoo, Bing and several other search engines, it was quite easy to do a search for Hells Canyon. What I learned floored me!

The reason I recalled the name was that I had found Hells Canyon in my search for places to visit on my trip last year. I had seen it when I was planning my journey across I-90 through Idaho and Washington. However, I found that it was too far south and had no easy access from I-90, so I discounted it as a destination.

It never occurred to me to look for a southern access from I-84 in Oregon, the route I used to return from Portland to Boise, Idaho. What I did instead was to turn off I-84 for what promised to be a scenic bypass. Let me quote from my trip journal:

“I did take a detour from the interstate and drove what was named The Elkhorn Scenic Loop. However, it was not very scenic and turned out to be a winding road in poor repair with potholes all along that I had to swerve to avoid. There were absolutely no views that I found interesting or photo-worthy. If I had it to do over again, I would definitely leave that part out.”

After seeing where Hells Canyon was with respect to the Elkhorn Scenic Loop, I realized that I could have gone one exit further to La Grande, Oregon and turned north instead of south to take the Hells Canyon Scenic Loop.

I described the interstate route through Oregon as a long stretch with few towns and no rest areas in my journal, but I just didn’t look in the right places.

Now I’m determined to make another trip to Oregon in the future. However, I won’t drive all the way next time. I’ll fly into Portland and rent a car. In three days I can go to Hells Canyon, up to the other side of Mount St Helens near Spirit Lake, and do some further exploration of the Columbia River Gorge.

My trip for this year is already mapped out, so I won’t even consider the Northwest for this summer. I may plan a fall foliage trip to Oregon for 2011, though.

I have started a new avocation on a website that you might want to visit. I am currently writing one-day road trips complete with photos under a psuedonymn "Road Hawk" for roadtripamerica.com. If you are planning a road trip vacation this year, you can visit the website for advice and ideas on what to see along the way. Give it a try.