{"id":1057,"date":"2016-09-30T23:24:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-01T03:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2016-09-30T23:24:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T03:24:46","slug":"hells-canyon-scenic-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=1057","title":{"rendered":"Hells Canyon Scenic Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, Sep 30<\/h3>\n

Today was simply a driving day but it was\u00a0along a route\u00a0that I have been wanting to\u00a0return to\u00a0for several years, the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway<\/em>. Hells Canyon was created by the Snake River and is the deepest river gorge in North America with the river some 7,993 feet below the highest part of the canyon rim. The river forms the boundary between Idaho and Oregon and the part of the scenic byway I drove was mainly along the Idaho river bank.<\/p>\n

Starting from Ontario, Oregon I drove back into Idaho and then headed to the single road that runs alongside the river as it flows north to Hells Canyon Dam. The road\u00a0is owned by Idaho Power and crosses\u00a0all three hydro-electric dams built in the\u00a0canyon as it zig-zags between Idaho and Oregon.\u00a0\u00a0The views of the river and canyon are spectacular and I stopped many times to enjoy the view and take photos on the way. I had visited the area in the early 2000s and my\u00a0over-riding memory was not the view but the wonderful serenity of the place when no vehicles were passing. It seems to have a silence that is unique and I experienced the same feeling again today.<\/p>\n

After reaching Hells Canyon Dam\u00a0there is no option but to retrace your path southwards along the canyon and I then followed the scenic byway all the way to its end at Baker City, Oregon where I stopped for the night.<\/p>\n

Since the route goes both directions along a single road and it was so scenic I decided to split the video into two parts.<\/p>\n

The drive north, from Ontario to Hells Canyon Dam, is here<\/a>. This has some very\u00a0good views of the river and canyon and the video is very clear as the sun was behind me. However, the second part, Hells Canyon Dam to Baker City,\u00a0 has much better views of the river and, despite driving into the sun at times,\u00a0gives a better taste of what\u00a0is in store for any visitor. That map\/video is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a view of the Snake River several miles before it even enters\u00a0Hells Canyon\"snake-river-1\"
\nLooking downstream towards Hells Canyon\"snake-river-2\"<\/p>\n

The serenity of the area is reflected in the surface of the water\"snake-river-hells-canyon-1\"
\nand a view of the river as it flows\u00a0through Hells Canyon.\"snake-river-hells-canyon-2\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, Sep 30 Today was simply a driving day but it was\u00a0along a route\u00a0that I have been wanting to\u00a0return to\u00a0for several years, the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. Hells Canyon was created by the Snake River and is the deepest river gorge in North America with the river some 7,993 feet below the highest part of … Continue reading Hells Canyon Scenic Drive<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[61,3],"tags":[38,41,9],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1065,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}