The reason we went to Riggins was because months ago we got a Groupon for Horseback Riding through Heaven's Gate Outfitters for a ridiculously good price. We decided to do a half day ride and so Monday morning found us in my little car going up ridiculously steep dirt/gravel single track roads with nothing to stop us if we went off. For a Toyota hatchback, it did really well off-roading! We got there and found the ride would just be the two of us and our guide. Justin met his horse, Two-Socks, and swung on. This was Justin's first time ever riding a horse, and he did amazing. It's not fair how some people are naturally athletic.
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| Justin anxiously awaits |
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| Enjoying his new ride |
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| The dude named Mack |
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| Figuring out the stirrups. Unfortunately my legs were too short and there weren't enough holes to make the stirrups shorter, so there are pics of my feet not even touching the stirrup bottoms. |
I was told my horse was named Dude, but then halfway through the ride, the guide looked him in the face, and said no, it was Mack. It was also obvious that Mack wasn't too well liked by the other horses. Whenever Justin and I would be close, Mack would try to headbutt Two-Socks and then Moose (our guide's horse) also tried to kick Mack. You can see on his rear all the bites Mack has from the other horses when they are out in pasture. I guess the poor stallion is still trying to find his place in the gelded group.
We started off and rode through the Seven Devils area at the Mullen Springs Trailhead. According to our guide, wildlife in this area include: elk, black bears, wolves, bighorn sheep, mountain goats and mountain lions. I really wanted to see a bear or mountain lion but sadly it didn't happen. There was some rustling of a large creature but nothing popped out. We did see a lot of red-tailed hawks and a bald eagle though. There were also a ton of butterflies flying around us in this one meadow we rode through which was fun. The guide explained that his company was mostly into leading hunting trips and that it is the best place to go mountain lion hunting. Apparently there is a four year wait to do one of these hunting trips, but there's a 94% chance to bag a large mountain lion. Because the area is so steep, and the prey so large, you pretty much need a hunting outfit or at least a couple of pack horses/mules of your own to carry everything. Here are some pretty pictures to enjoy. Please forgive the blurriness as it's hard to take pictures when riding.
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| Taking it easy |
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| We were both busy trying to take pictures of the scenery |
The horses were good and we came back sore but happy. And Justin would love to ride again, YAY!!! So after all that exercise, we headed back to town and grabbed some elk tacos and a buffalo burger to enjoy. The food was delicious, especially the homemade salsa. It was my first time trying elk, and it was pretty good. It didn't taste gamey at all.
After lunch we headed off to the Seven Devil's/Heaven's Gate Outlook for a small hike in the Nez Perce National Forest. Here is a link to the fascinating legend of the Seven Devils Mountains from the Nez Perce tribe (
Seven Devils Myth). It was a longish drive, but we had fun looking at the scenery and the wildlife.
Wait, is that a black bear?
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| Nope just cows wandering loose on the road |
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| Our mule buddy who stepped right up to the window to say hi |
When we got to the top, we hiked to the Fire Lookout Post, where there were panoramic views of Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon. The temperature dropped quite a bit suddenly and to the east we could see lightning striking a mountain top. We decided it was time to head back down, so we went back to town, grabbed a pizza and some wine and went back to the lodge for a relaxing night in, watching X-Files on the VHS.
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| The Seven Devils |
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| Brr |
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| Some horses loose on the road on our way down |
Once we got to Riggins, we decided to go white-water rafting as it's the main thing to do in the town besides hunting. Both Justin and I had been rafting once before on relatively calmer waters when we were younger, and the Salmon River offered Class III and Class IV rapids, with relatively mild water between. As we had not originally been planning to do this, we weren't dressed the most appropriately, but we showed up and found out we would have a boat to ourselves, as the other party rafting was a group of 11. We went through Epley's, who happened to be through our lodge, and they were great. I think of the three boats, we managed the harder rapids (admittedly the other two boats had small children), and managed to stay in the boat. We also did something called "riding the bull", where we sat on the front of the boat as we went through the rapids, with our feet in the water. Now that was a lot of fun. We had a great guide who had some fun stories about the gold mining region and some of the interesting people who lived there past and present. She even let us try to steer and paddle the boat with her guide oars. One of the rapids was named Timezone, as it is right at the Mountain/Pacific timezone change (yep, we dealt with a lot of time changes). We both agreed it was our favorite of the rapids, and here are two of the photos we got from the photographer there. Please note that these were scanned from our hard copy photos, so they aren't the best quality...heck, they aren't even straight.
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| This is probably the rapid where we each swallowed a good part of water |
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| Paddling our way out of the rapid |
We had a great time, and would recommend a weekend trip here to anyone. It's a great place to go rafting, with fun rapids and beautiful scenery, as well as lots of great hikes and people.
