Day 3 - Sep 5, 2005 Last updated: 10/15/05 5:00pm PT
Day 3 begins from the Comfort Inn in Lewiston, Idaho, (clean and quiet) with a trip to the Nez Perce Reservation Visitor’s Center. Not much to see here. This day was all about going to the Heaven’s Gate Lookout, near Riggins, ID. From this lookout, you are suppose to be able to see 4 states (WA, OR, ID, MT). This is suppose to be the best view into Hells Canyon. Elevation 8429 ft. Let me tell you, it’s not worth the 3.5 to 4 hour drive one way from Lewiston, ID. The last 10 miles are on a one lane, trauma inducing, steep climbing, cliff hugging, gravel road. Then you have to drive back down the mountain! The car was a mess, coated inside and out with dust.
At the end of the road is a parking lot. Then you have to hike the last couple hundred vertical feet to the lookout tower you see in the distance in the first picture below. We didn’t *SEE* the rattlesnake, but we sure heard it. We hiked quickly. Our car is down there, somewhere, in that parking lot, viewed from the lookout.
Unfortunately, there was a forest fire in Hells Canyon, near Heaven’s Gate Lookout. So any views west are filled with smoke. I’ve merged three pictures together to give you a look at how the smoke doesn’t cross the mountain (I say mountain, but I don’t know the real classification – we are at 8500 ft). The camera has all that auto-blah, blah, blah, so the lighting changes as you pan around, so they don’t merge all that well, but you get the idea.
Denise and Ed at the top of the mountain.
