Moby Goes to the Bruneau River

We kicked off the summer of 2014 with a trip in May to the Bruneau River in southern Idaho’s desert country. The road to the river crosses a seemingly endless plateau, part of which belongs to the Air Force Base at Mountain Home, ID.

Because the canyon is steep, there is only one road in 50 miles that crosses it. We take the long rocky route with wildlife viewing along the way.

We see some interesting sights.

We find a spot for Moby right on the river.

This section of the Bruneau River (Indian Hot Springs) is privately owned, and you can still see the remnants of the old homestead.

But enough of this! There are fish to catch, so we walked along the river in search of trout.

The Jarbidge and Bruneau Rivers both have their headwaters in northern Nevada and flow north into Idaho where they eventually join the Snake River (aka Idaho’s sewer) and become water for Idaho’s farms and dairies.                                                                                                                     Read more about our big sewer at https://www.hcn.org/issues/46.13/idahos-sewer-system-is-the-snake-river

The fishing was crappy, with the river yielding only Northern Pikeminnow (aka Squawfish) but it it was an interesting hike anyway.

These 50 miles of deep canyon waters are designated as a Wild and Scenic rivers and are part of the Bruneau-Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness created in 2009. These rivers attract kayakers and crazy rafters during the spring runoff when the worst rapids are in class V range and above. Class V rapids are dangerous even for experts. Class VI means portage or die. Run away!