West Trip Day 11: Riding the Snake

Thurday, June 24

The Halls and the Pranskys had planned to do separate morning activities today. The Halls wanted to do a scenic float down the Snake River to look at wildlife. We chose to book a whitewater rapids experience. This was another activity that I did when I was here in 1988 and wanted the kids to experience it, too.

We met our driver, Lindsey, who took us about 30 minutes down the river to the place we’d put in. She was a very nice young lady who was starting teaching kindergarten in the fall, so we had a lot to talk about. We also talked a lot about her living at the camp with the other river guides. These guides lived largely in simple tents along the river during the summer months that the boats rafted.

When we arrived at the put in spot, we changed into our swim suits and put on our wet suits over them. Mine was a little small for me, and Jen laughed uncontrollably as I jumped to pull mine up completely. We met our guide and Linsey snapped a picture for us.

Our guide was Matt, a 25 year old med student. He was a really good guide - he navigated well and kept everyone happy by telling a lot of jokes and funny stories. He’d tell us tall tales about various spots on the river such as the place where Chevy Chase got drunk and crashed his car into the river during the filming of Vacation, and where President George H. W. Bush was dumped while rafting with his secret service river guides. He told us where sasquatch is often seen and where they leave Twinkies and beef jerky for him. He showed us a famous rock formation hundreds of feet above the river where a cliff jumping scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed. He showed us features of the rocks that looked like a coyote and one that looked like a face from one direction. (The other side was broken up because Chuck Norris was tired of the rock staring at him so he punched it to bits.)

Early on Jen got a lot of the soaking as huge waves would slam the front of the boat. Jen and I rode in front, while the kids rowed behind us and another couple we didn’t know rowed in the rear. It was an eight person boat so everyone, even the kids, needed to pitch in to keep us out of the bad spots. Matt described to us several very bad spots that people have become trapped and in a few cases killed on the river. One spot was called a hydraulic. Matt showed us how in that spot water flowed down the side of the mountain into the river causing an area of suction that can pull the entire boat down into the water.

We passed several rapids with colorful names like Wet Crotch 1 and 2, Camel Hump, Shrimp Diaper, Campagne, and Last Chance. A couple points of the ride slowed down a bit and gave you a more scenic look at the mountains. One of the girls riding with us jumped into the 40º water as did our guide, Matt.

The highlight section of the ride was an area called Lunch Counter. Matt yelled to us just before entering, “Don’t get scared and don’t stop rowing!” We floated through a narrow rock wall with giant waves. At a couple points I would reach down with my oar to paddle and would catch nothing but air. I could hear Mikah and Rogan giggling and laughing hysterically behind me. When we made it through, Mikah asked, “Can we do that again?”

Lindsey picked us up at the end and we had a 30 minute ride back to our car to dry off and laugh about all of the fun we just had.

Since our supply of clean clothes was dwindling, we visited the local laundry mat and did a few loads of clothes. The Halls met us there to do some laundry as well. In the down time we told stories of our rafting and read and relaxed a little bit.

From there, we parked in the public parking in Jackson Hole and walked through the town a bit. We stopped at the town square to admire the antler art and the bronze statues. Then we found a shop that had taken pictures of our whitewater rafting through Lunch Counter and laughed at the expressions on everyone’s faces as we paddled through the rapids. We decided to order some pictures online when we got home.

We were hungry since we had missed lunch so we stopped in a Thai restaurant that we had planned to eat dinner. It was before 4:00 and they were not open yet so we milled around the town some more before coming back. We stopped in a couple shops to buy some sweatshirts and t-shirts. By the time we finished shopping, the restaurant was open and we sat down for our meal. The food was excellent, albeit a little spicy. (This came back to haunt me a bit later).

After an early dinner, we explored more of Jackson Hole. While the kids stopped in the candy store, Greg and I ran into Lindsey, our driver from whitewater rafting earlier. We all went back to the campground, started a campfire and went to bed.