Some old timers have called this stretch of river the “Grand Canyon of Oregon”, and rightfully so. The middle Owyhee has some of the deepest gorge walls in OR. The rating on this stretch is class 3-5, with there being just one class five drop properly titled, Widowmaker. Other than that, this remote desert run in Eastern Oregon is primarily a class 3-4 minus run and is often a raft supported trip into the highest concentration of rattle snakes in this part of the country….although, with temps around freezing and it being fairly early in the year, I am certain that they were still hiding in their holes. Our group was made of four classy peeps- Drew Eastman, Christie Glissmeyer, Kim Russell and myself, Jesse Becker. All of us are Hood River locals and were searching for a good self support trip to get us out of town for a few days. Below are a few pics from the trip- the scenery was fantastic, the river had fun flow, and the weather, well, was off and on- sometimes hailing and snowing on us with the head winds sometimes blowing us up stream. Enjoy! And if you need any info on the area- shoot me an email. jbecker@immersionresearch.com














I just returned from a Lower Owyhee 5 day adventure yesterday March 29th, 2010. We experienced the same random and extreme weather as you did. Luckily for us when the snow blew in we were only several miles from hot springs. We oared fast and hard and enjoyed hot springs in the snow. Owyhee is an awesome canyon, an awesome adventure, and I would do it all over again.
Hey Paul- Glad you had a good time on the Lower! I think you guys had a little more Hot Spring action than we did- unfortunately! ha-Jesse