I have wanted to take a jet boat ride down the Salmon River for about 10 years, and that wish finally came true in June! I booked a day trip for Josh and I with Arctic Creek Lodge & Tours. There is a hot springs on my "hit list" of 100 Hot Springs in Idaho down the Salmon River, and the only way to access it is either by a week-long rafting trip or a day ride on a jet boat. Since we did the rafting trip down the Middle Fork last year, we couldn't afford to do it again down the Main so soon. The hot springs is on a stretch that is accessible from the eastern side of the river, so any jet boats launched from the western side by Riggins wouldn't be able to reach it on their day stretch. There are only 2 companies that currently book jet boat tours from the eastern side, which made scheduling this trip a little tricky. We originally had a tour date set in June of 2021, but the river dropped so low the week we were scheduled to go that the boat wouldn't be able to go as far as the hot springs, so sadly we had to cancel. We then tried to reschedule for 2022, but every time there was an opening for Josh and I to join an expedition, it was on a date we couldn't go. I was SO grateful that it finally worked out for us to go in June this year!
The tour date was scheduled for Thursday, June 15. Josh and I took our camper van and camped at Corn Creek Campground on Wednesday night, since it's a 2-hour ride to get to Corn Creek from Salmon, and our boat ride began at 8:30am on Thursday morning. It was so wonderful to camp along the river, and it was so peaceful in the middle of the week. We took a walk along the river that night and enjoyed the surroundings.
The jet boat picked us up on Thursday morning from the Corn Creek dock. We were joined by a large group from Montana, and a family of 3 from the Salmon area as well. It was the first jet boat ride Josh and I had ever taken. It was quite exciting how fast it could go! We drove for 40 miles down river, before it turned around and came back. We stopped 4 times on the way: the first was to check out some pictographs on the cliffs bordering the river, then we made a pit stop at Arctic Creek Lodge, which was quite charming. Barth Hot Springs was our next stop, which was absolutely amazing and definitely worth the trip! We only got to soak for about 15 minutes, but I loved every single second of it! Our last stop was the turnaround point of the day--40 miles down river from Corn Creek. We stopped at the footbridge to the historic site of Campbell's Ferry. Josh walked around the location, and just loved it!
We had an exhilarating ride back to Corn Creek, and arrived about 4:30pm. Josh and I both enjoyed ourselves immensely on the day-long excursion.
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| I waited on the boat while Josh explored Campbell's Ferry. |
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On our drive back to Salmon from Corn Creek, we saw where
the Middle Fork and Main Salmon merge--there had been a
blow-out on the Main Salmon upriver earlier in the week that
reached the confluence the previous day, & the contrast was quite a sight. |
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