Idaho's Middle Fork of the Salmon River

"The only way you could improve this trip would be to stay on the river another week."

-P. Stouffer, Aspen, CO

The Middle Fork of the Salmon is America’s premier alpine whitewater river. It features 75 to 100 miles of pristine wilderness, spectacular scenery, incredibly clear water, exciting rapids, natural hot springs, excellent trout fishing, and Native American pictographs. What more could one want in a river trip!?

The river begins as a small, quick stream close to 6000 feet above sea level, and increases more than five-fold in volume over its 100 mile course. The upper river is in a tight canyon covered with Douglas fir and lodgepole Pine. Then the canyon opens up and features ponderosa pine, sagebrush, and mountain mahogany, flora more typical of the high desert.

...100 miles of pristine wilderness, spectacular scenery, incredibly clear water, exciting rapids, natural hot springs, excellent trout fishing, and Native American pictographs...The last two days we enter Impassable Canyon, with almost vertical rock walls on both sides. Here we find the river at its full strength. The rapids are bigger, more intense, and closer together. Red Side, Webber, Cliffside, Rubber, Hancock, Devil’s Tooth and House Rock all occur in the last day and a half. We float onto the Main Salmon for the last three miles of our trip, where we encounter the biggest rapid of the trip. In 2003 a flash flood caused a landslide at Cramer Creek just above our take-out at Cache Bar, creating a wonderful new rapid and the perfect end to our trip.

We run five-day trips in early June, when the river is at its highest, and six-day trips the rest of the season. At some point, usually from late July to mid-August, the upper 25 miles of river get too low to run, and we begin our trips by flying in to Indian Creek. Unlike most outfitters, we pay for your flight in.

Upon request, In August we can provide three-day trips that cover about half the miles of a six-day trip.

Middle Fork Camping

Our regular camp set-up on the Middle Fork is pretty darned comfortable. We provide four-person tents for two people, large Thermarest pads (a very soft combination of air and foam), large, rectangular sleeping bags, and camp chairs.

Many of our local clients are aging at about the same rate we are, and have wished that we could make things a little more cushy. For them we have developed the "optional deluxe camping package" which adds cots, a tent large enough to stand up in, and a luxury model Thermarest pad.

Some folks tell us that this package has added at least ten years to their river running. The cost is $300 per couple and has limited availability.

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ECHO River Trips

6529 Telegraph Ave
Oakland, CA 94609

(800) 652-3246