Trip Report: East Fork Owyhee

By Greg Kimsey

The biggest challenge of an East Fork Owyhee (“EFO”) trip is matching availability of people with the appropriate water level (a bonus is if the weather is reasonable, It can be very cold in that canyon).  We had three people in kayaks and one person in a canoe for the 102 mile, 5 ½ day trip from the Duck Valley put in on the EFO to Three Forks on the Owyhee. (at Three Forks one person went home and two others joined us for the 37 miles to Rome, a trip report for that section will be provided soon). We wanted a reading of 1,000 – 2,000 cfs on the Crutcher Crossing gauge (67 miles downstream of Duck Valley launch site), however, we put in with about 700 cfs at Crutcher (most of us agreed that was about as low as we would want to go in hard shell kayaks or canoes).

EFO downstream from Bald Mountain Canyon.

Ken Haylett in Caldwell, Idaho very kindly allowed us to sleep in his back yard, then rode with us to the put in and shuttled our truck to Rome.  We had heard that river access on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation requires permission, however when we stopped at the Tribal Headquarters Office we learned this is not correct.

The gravel, then dirt, road to the Duck Valley put in wasn’t too bad- flat, a bit rutted – a two wheel drive vehicle with some ground clearance (or a very careful driver with a lower ground clearance vehicle) would have no problem if it hasn’t rained recently.  It’s a bit tricky to find the put in. The latititude/longitiude is: 42.03200, -116.23750.

If it has rained recently making the final mile to the Duck Valley put in a challenge there is a put in where the gravel road crosses the EFO about five river miles upstream from the put in we used (but the EFO has very little gradient from there for the next seven miles until it enters the canyon).  There are three other EFO launch points down river of Duck Valley – Garat Crossing, Rickert Crossing (requires landowner permission) and Crutcher Crossing – these require high clearance four-wheel drive vehicles and may be impassable when wet. The day we put in was warm and the mosquitos were worse than I have ever experienced, they were not a problem after we entered the canyon, about two miles from the put in. 

The “Owyhee, Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers Boating Guide” published by the BLM is an excellent source of information, including camp sites and water sources.  Filtering water from side streams is much more appealing than out of the river. We each had the ability to carry at least a gallon of water.   We found water at Hole Up Canyon at RM 16 on the BLM map, Battle Creek at RM 9 (on BLM map river miles begin at 0 at the entrance to the canyon two miles below Duck Valley put in and again at Garat Crossing, 25 miles from Duck Valley put in), Deep Creek at RM 24, Bald Mountain Canyon at RM 48 (water was 2/3 mile up canyon) and West Little Owyhee at RM 66. 

We portaged Pipeline at RM 22 (portage on left), Raft Bridge (portage on left), Owyhee Falls (portage on right), Thread the Needle (portage left) and Cable (portage right). We were able to run Heartbreak Hotel and Boulder Jam. Pipeline and Raft Bridge would have been more runnable with more water.

Owyhee Falls

Will Gehr (left) and Alan Douglass portaging Owyhee Falls

The first 5-6 miles after entering the canyon has several Class III rapids, and a couple of III+. After that and until shortly below Three Forks there are very few rapids, but probably 80% of this run is in a beautiful canyon with 300’-500’ walls.

We were there during a “swarm” of Mormon crickets (aka - shield-backed katydids).  There were hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of these for many miles on rocks along the river and in the river.  They weren’t present at campsites, and they didn’t make a “cricket sound.”  As we dropped in elevation they increased in size, but there were fewer of them.

Mormon crickets swarming on rock and river

Each day we began paddling around 9am, took a couple short breaks and finished around 5pm.

We experienced the biggest/longest lasting thunder/lightening/rain event that I have ever seen, with lightening about 1 mile away from where we were paddling.  It was very impressive to hear the thunder echoing in the canyon.  Fortunately for the canoeist high winds were not part of that event. That storm did bring a significant drop in air temperature.  A couple of days later we had very large rainstorm.  It rained several nights and we had beautiful blue sky several days. 

About 1.7 miles above Three Forks on the left side is a fabulous hot spring pool sitting about 50’ above the river with crystal clear 86 degree water, about 2 1/2 ‘ deep and about 10’ by 20’ in size..  To access this by road from Three Forks you would travel about ½ mile up the North Fork Owyhee cross it and then it’s about 2 miles up and over “Owyhee Dome” and then you would cross the Owyhee River to reach the best springs.  There is a smaller warm pool on river right.

This was a fabulous adventure: fantastic canyon and very remote. Until we reached the hot springs above Three Forks we did not see another person.  The only sign of humans before that was the gauge at Crutcher Crossing, a very small metal farm building at Rickert Crossing and an abandoned rotting log cabin that was at least 100 years old a few miles above West Little Owyhee.