The River of no Return.

        The Salmon River flows through the Frank Church, River of No Return Wilderness and is the second largest wilderness area after Death Valley in the contiguous United States. The Salmon River is also the longest free flowing, no dams, river in the lower 48 and runs through the second deepest canyon in the United States. Only Hells Canyon is deeper and The Grand Canyon was surprisingly third.

     Here I am trying my hand at fishing on the River of no Return.

We started in the morning for a drive down a dirt road that follows the river to the start of the wilderness...48 miles away. First corner we come to and we see these elk.

A couple miles down the road is a firefighting camp. There seems to be 5 or 6 fires in the wilderness at the moment and for the most part, they let them burn. Firefighters and smoke jumper are still on call, so Bob (taking photo) and Curt are the volunteers that set up camp and make sure all the supplies are in place.

 This is one of the rigs they use to pump water up to the firetrucks from the river...but the only other way to get into the wilderness area is by helicopter water drops.

Shoup is the only town on the 48 mile river road. What's cool about Shoup is that the antique gas pumps still work.

This time of year the rapids aren't a real problem. The couple here will show us how it's done.

Well...maybe it's not that easy after all.

As Queen would say "Another one bites the dust"

Donna got this great photo of a chukar...first one we had ever seen.

How appropriate, few miles down the dirt road was this bar and cafe. 

Dan was the owner, builder and bartender of the day, which was very lucky for us. Dan kept us in beer and peanuts while he told us all about the people (like him) who live off the grid year round.

I don't want to misrepresent Dan...he's no country "bumpkin". Having traveled all over the world as a big game hunter before settling down here on the Salmon River. Dan decorated the bar with some of his trophies  like elk, Stag from Bulgaria, bear and wolf pelts hung around the bar.

Dans most prized possession is this rare inter-bred bird from a ring neck pheasant and a chukar. Here is how it happened...well, I'll let Dan tell you after this photo.

Here it is...

Ok, enough fun...got to get to the end of this road with only 20 miles to go. Not only do some of these people live off the grid and off the land, they don't want you wandering up the front steps either so they build on the opposite bank with only this locked pulley system to go back and forth.

There is always time to pick some free fruit.

This landowner certainly doesn't need a lawnmower.

This is where the Middle Fork of the Salmon River joins the Salmon River.

We are almost there...the end of the road!

We made the 48 mile trip down the "river of no return" and we...returned, ha ha

There was a rescue jet boat standing by at the end of the road because if you miss landing here...it's an eighty mile trip with no getting off, before you see any civilization again in Riggin, Idaho

Ok, now it's our turn to show these young'uns how to float the river!