Which is the best river?
Every whitewater rafting river has its own characteristics and personality. The "best" river rafting trip is the one that matches your interests. If your preference is on-the-edge whitewater, consider the Middle Fork of the Salmon in June. The Main Salmon and the Lower Salmon offer more moderate whitewater rafting, especially in mid-summer. You may be interested in only a quiet day trip, with hardly any whitewater at all. You may want to spend a week camping along the Salmon River--or drifting down the Main Salmon each day and spending nights in riverside lodges instead of camping. By combining the Middle Fork and the Main Salmon, and adding the Lower Salmon, you can spend nearly three weeks rafting the Salmon River.
Fishing might be an interest for you, either dry-fly fishing for trout from a McKenzie River drift boat on the Middle Fork of the Salmon, or steelhead fishing from a drift boat on a day trip near the town of Salmon, Idaho in late fall or early spring, or an extended back-country trip on the Main Salmon or Lower Salmon. September on the Lower Salmon is good time for smallmouth bass fishing--good weather, few people on the river. In early October on the Lower Salmon, we use drift boats for a combination steelhead fishing/chukar hunting/whitewater/camping trip; we even bring the sturgeon rods.
Think about a spring trip on the Middle Fork or Main Salmon when there are essentially no people on the river, the big game animals are still near the river, flowers are blooming, and sense of wilderness is greatest, or you may prefer the warmer, more secure weather of mid-summer. The large sand beach camping and swimming available on the Main Salmon may be a choice, especially if there are younger kids in the group.
Regional history, both natural and cultural, may be an interest; all three sections have a rich frontier background, but they do vary. Early access to the canyon of the Middle Fork was primarily by horse, as early settlers established remote ranches along the small river-side benches. There was some mining but it was limited. There are more Indian remains--pictographs, house pits, hunting pits--along the Middle Fork than farther downstream. Some of the activity of the Sheepeater Indian War of 1879 was along the Middle Fork of the Salmon. On the Main Salmon, horses were used, but much of the access into the Salmon River canyon was by large wooden sweep boats, with fine gold in the riverside gravel the primary attraction. As those boats, loaded with supplies, left the town of Salmon they could never come back against the current, resulting in the Main Salmon becoming known as the River of No Return. The Lower Salmon, while remote, back-country, was more accessible, both by horseback and by boat; mining and ranching were both pursued. Some of the action of the Nez Perce war of 1877 occurred along the Lower Salmon. On the Middle Fork and Main Salmon, cabins were mostly of log, while in the lower, dryer environment of the Lower Salmon, rock was often used as a building material.
The Salmon is one of the classic wilderness whitewater rivers. By choosing time of the year and section of the river, the Salmon River can stimulate nearly any interest We offer multiple day camping trips on all three back-country sections of the Salmon, the Middle Fork, the Main, and the Lower Salmon, and day trips near the town of Salmon, as well as a variety of fishing trips, and encourage you to call us, day or evening, to discuss various choices in detail.
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