Bighorn Crags, River of No Return Wilderness, ID

Dates

Jul 13th - Jul 19th 2008

Service Project

Trail Maintenance

Free Days

Excellent trout fishing and fabulous dayhiking

Accommodations

Backpack camping

Trip Rating

Challenging : 8-mile backpack; removing rocks, digging, lifting, bending, hauling, using shovels, pulaskis

Leaders

Debra Ellers
Dale Grooms

Equipment

Few places in America, and nowhere outside of Alaska, provide a Wilderness experience to match the sheer magnitude of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, the second largest unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System in the Lower 48 (second in size only to California's Death Valley Wilderness). This area combines the old Idaho Primitive Area, the Salmon Breaks Primitive Area, territory on six national forests, and a small swath of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Senator Frank Church played a key role in the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, and his name was added to the Wilderness in 1984, shortly before his death.

It is a land of clear rivers, deep canyons, and rugged mountains. Two white-water rivers draw many visitors: the Main Salmon River, which runs west near the northern boundary; and the Middle Fork of the Salmon, which begins near the southern boundary and runs north for about 104 miles until it joins the Main. Reaching 6,300 feet from the river bottom, the canyon carved by the Main Salmon is deeper than most of the earth's canyons--including the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River--and this fast-moving waterway has been dubbed the River of No Return. Trout fishing usually rates from good to excellent. Unlike the sheer walls of the Grand Canyon, these rivers rush below wooded ridges rising steeply toward the sky, beneath eroded bluffs and ragged, solitary crags.

Without a major crest, these mountains splay out in a multitude of minor crests in all directions, and rise gradually to wide summits. East of the Middle Fork, the fabulous Bighorn Crags form a jagged series of summits, at least one topping 10,000 feet. The Bighorn Crags surround 14 strikingly beautiful clearwater lakes.

Our work project will be on the access trail to the gorgeous Ship Island Lake area in the heart of the Bighorn Crags, doing trail tread rehabilitation and clearing. On our day off, we can fish for trout or dayhike to some of the nearby lakes. We'll have opportunities to hear wolves calling during the week. Pack support is provided for tools, food and commissary gear.