![]() ![]() Hells Canyon Overlook This viewpoint, overlooking the south part of Hells Canyon, is two miles of paved natiobnal forest road off paved Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, a designated All-American Road. Here are the viewpoints north to south: most peopkle consider Hat Point No. Campgrounds and longer trails are available nearby in the surrounding forest. Amenities at the overlooks are limited to picnic tables, information panels, vault toilets and short trails to panoramic views. The road to Hat Point is likely to be snowed in until early July. The Hells Canyon Scenic Byway had its typical mid-June opening when the snow melted from two of the viewpoints. Also keep in mind that drivers have gotten into trouble navigating these kinds of roads with GPS devices. Click on the forest website links below for specific driving directions. To find them, you need a Wallowa-Whitman National Forest road map, or maps of Baker and Wallowa counties. South to north, Oregon's viewpoints are Hells Canyon, Hat Point and Buckhorn. Bugling calls of rutting bull elk echo across the land. Fall is another exciting time as stands of aspens turn golden on the rim and in the side canyons. Oregon's shapely Wallowa Mountains can be glimpsed to the west. Idaho's Seven Devils Mountains, snow-capped in all but the hottest months, poke above the canyon rim to the east like a bad set of teeth. This turns grasses brown, but also brings on the wildflower bloom in one of Oregon's most colorful displays. The baking heat of the lower canyon is hardly imaginable up on the rim, where cool breezes keep it pleasant until midsummer's heat takes hold even up there. The canyon walls of the upper slopes - green during spring and early summer - have already turned to shades of brown in the lower canyon, where the season is advanced by weeks. Then, you park, stroll to the rim - and the earth drops away as the chasm unfolds. Glimpses of grandeur come along the way as you skirt the many side canyons that drop down, down, down more than a mile to the Snake River. Anticipation builds as you approach the rim, because the drive is far from the beaten path. But then, what is? Hells Canyon is stunning in its own way. Admittedly, the canyon that makes up northeastern Oregon's border is no match for Arizona's Grand Canyon. Lacking passage for migrating salmon, the three dams of the Hells Canyon Project blocked access by anadromous salmonids to a stretch of the Snake River drainage basin from Hells Canyon Dam up to Shoshone Falls, which naturally prevents any upstream fish passage to the upper Snake River basin.Hells Canyon, the deepest river gorge in the United States, has three spectacular viewpoints reachable by roads on the Oregon side. ![]() Power generation began with two units in 1967, the third came on line the following year. The Hells Canyon Dam powerhouse contains three generating units, with a total nameplate capacity of 391 megawatts (MW). The contractor for the Hells Canyon Dam was Morrison-Knudsen of Boise. The Hells Canyon Complex on the Snake River is the largest privately owned hydroelectric power complex in the nation, according to the US Energy Information Administration. It is the third and final hydroelectric dam of the Hells Canyon Project, which includes Brownlee Dam (1959) and Oxbow Dam (1961), all built and operated by Idaho Power Company. At river mile 247, the dam impounds Hells Canyon Reservoir its spillway elevation is 1,680 feet (512 m) above sea level. ![]() Hells Canyon Dam is a concrete gravity dam in the western United States, on the Snake River in Hells Canyon along the Idaho- Oregon border. ![]()
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