This trip started when I received a call from a friend of mine, Dave P. asking if I wanted to go hunting in Hells Canyon with him and a couple of his friends. He invited me and our friend Dave G. We would be using llamas to pack the meat out of the canyon, the deepest in North America. Since I had never been to Hells Canyon, this would be a new experience for me. We made our plans and were soon off to the far reaches on Northeast Oregon.
We left Salem very early in the morning and drove all day to reach Hells Canyon. When we were driving along the Imnaha river, I got a sense that the stories of huge, steep canyons were not a joke. This is some steep rough country, better suited to rattle snakes and bighorn sheep than hunters. We left Imnaha and headed up. By the time we reached Hat Point, I was starting to see why a person needed pack animals to get meat out of the canyon. A person can't even describe how steep and rough these canyons are. We climbed the Hat Point lookout tower and were greeted to a sweeping view of the Eagle Caps, with there towering peaks. The Seven Devils Wilderness in Idaho with its high rugged peaks. And the Hells Canyon of the Snake River. What an impressive scene. We drove down past Warrnock Corrals and started driving down the Ridge Road. This had to be one of the worst roads I have ever had the pleasure to drive on. It took us what seemed like forever to get to our camping spot near Grassy Knoll. On the way in we stopped for a break along an opening and we glassed down into the canyon. Right away I spotted an elk. I figured this had to be a good sign! We got to camp and set up the wall tent. At this time there were 4 of us in camp. Dave P (we will call him Dave from now on), Dave G (we will call him David from now on), Darren, and Myself. Brian would be comming up tomorrow with the llamas. After we got camp all set up, we grabbed the bows and headed out for a quick little hunt before dark. I walked out on a rocky point to do some glassing and to soak up the beauty of it all. I quickly found two herds of elk down in the canyon. I knew there was no way to get to them this evening, so I watched them and knew that tomorrow would hold more elk.
We all jumped in Dave's rig and drove along the ridge road while it was dark. Our plan was to spread out and drop over the edge at some of the ridges that went down into Temperance Creek. We would then climb back up and out and meet along the ridge road at dark. I was dropped off on a ridge that I had seen while looking at topo maps. It dropped off steeply down to some benches before it dropped again to the bottom. The morning was a little foggy but it would move in and out enough for me to see quite well. I had just reached a rocky point and started glassing when I saw my first elk of the day. A lone cow out on an open hillside. A little more glassing showed there were about 5 of them on the same steep hillside. I was trying to figure out how to get a closer look, when I swung my binocs down to the benches below. There was a big herd of about 30 down there. I started looking for a bull and suddenly saw him swaggering up the hill following his cows. He looked like a nice 6 point from where I was, so I started down the hill after him. I had walked about 200 yard straight down when I glassed another open bench and saw about 60 head out in the open there. It also contained a nice bull. This was too much. I continued toward the herd I had seen first. The elk were now feeding into some trees so I headed for them myself, thinking that I could maybe set up some sort of ambush. When I got down into the trees, the wind started swirling, so I tried to walk around and find a spot that was less windy. I knew the elk would smell me and be long gone if I stayed in the area so I ran around the side, thinking I might be able to come up behind them and bugle the bull into a fight. I got to where I wanted to be and let a bugle out. The bull answered and I heard him running around up above me. I let out a few cow calls and waited... Nothing. I let out another bugle. This time I heard him way up the hill. He was running from me. I decided to circle way around and come up a different ridge and maybe run into them again. As I was walking around I ran into David and we decided to hunt up the ridge together. We saw a few other elk down on the benches and tried a few stalks but we also realized that we were a long way from the top and it was getting later. We ran across the herd one more time on the way up but we were unable to get in position or call the bull out. We got to the top and met up with Dave and Darrin. Darrin had shot a nice 5x3 right away this morning. As Dave dropped Darrin off, they heard a bugle below the road. They both headed down after it and soon got into the elk. Darren worked in close to one bull and cow called to get him to stop. When he stopped 11 yards away, Darren shot. The bull ran a little ways, fell and rolled way down into a draw. They boned the elk and hung the meat up in the trees. What a way to start the trip. Darren called home that night with a cell phone and found out that Brian would not be able to make it tomorrow, so the meat would have to come out on our backs tomorrow.
We got up in the morning and once again dropped down into Hells Canyon. We were all into elk all day but couldn't get a shot. We made it out earlier today so we could go pack Darren's elk out. When we had all met up, Dave and Darren told us they had seen a bear down in one of the canyons. We drove over to the ridge that would lead us down to Darren's elk and went on down. We loaded our packs up with the meat and noticed that a bear had been on the bones and gut pile. The pack out was nice because it was now dark and alot cooler that it had been during the day. The moon gave us enough light to see and we made good time coming out.
Darrin and David drove into town to take the meat to a locker, and Dave and I decided to hunt closer to camp because Brian was supposed to be comming. We hunted the flats behind our camp and headed down Jakey ridge. We walked along way and never did see very much sign. It was then decide that all the elk were down in the canyon and not up on top. We would have to keep hunting down in the canyon. After only two days of it, I was tired of packing myself up out of that hell hole. Brian made it to camp with the llamas and David and Darren made it back from town and we all decided that tomorrow, we would load the llamas up with gear, and head down into the canyon to stay a couple of days.
Dave and I hunted down into the canyon while David and Brian walked the llamas down another ridge. On our way down we all saw elk and bear. It seems there are bear everwhere down here. We made it down and set up camp near Wisnor Place in Temperance Creek. We even had a couple of bear come in close to camp. We had been hearing a faint bugle during the day across the creek and we finally saw the elk. A big bull with about 30 cows was feeding across a large clearing. David and I headed out to hunt them and Brian, Dave, and Darren went another direction. David and I got in real close to the herd but too many eyes and a nervous bull made it tough for us to get closer. Finally the bull had enough of us taunting him and he picked up his cows and ran off. We made it back to camp at dark. We layed out in the meadow and watched shooting stars until we all fell asleep.
We didn't see many elk this day, but we did see lots of bear. Dave and Brian were across a canyon when they saw a bear walking towards camp and the llamas, so Brian ran down the canyon and up the other side to camp to make sure the bear didn't bother camp or the llamas. Dave had a run in at about 10 feet from a bear also. Other than that, the day was fairly uneventfull.
Brian and David started leading the llamas up the Temperance Creek trail right away in the morning. Dave, Darren, and Myself would hunt our way up the canyon again. On the way up we saw plenty of elk. I had one bugle for quite awhile at me, but he eventually took off. We also saw a few bear. We saw two just as we left camp and then I saw a big cinnamon colored bear from about 20 feet away. This bear ran off toward Darren and Dave and snuck up on Darren as he was glassing a hillside. I understand that it was only a few feet from Darren by the time the bear saw him and ran. It's hard to say who was more willing to run away! We made it up to the top and drove down to Warrnock Corrals to pick up David and Brian. They didn't make it out until just about dark.
The last two days of the hunt saw us climbing up and down Hells Canyon after elk. We saw all sorts of elk, but we just couldn't get within range or something else went wrong. We ended up seeing about 11 different bears we think. That's quite a few in a weeks time. The land here is rough and rugged but for a true rough elk hunt, this can't be beat. We only ended up with one elk, but for beautiful country and solitude, and lots of elk, Hells Canyon can't be beat. If you would like some historical information on Hells Canyon, visit the Wallowa County Chieftain Newspaper