Exploring the Breathtaking Scenery of Idaho's Snake River Trail in Hells Canyon (4K)

It’s becoming an annual tradition for my buddy Chris and me to go on an early season backpacking trip and that means finding some desert or river canyon microclimate to explore - the challenge being to find some place that is likely to be snow-free in April. This time, I talked Chris into trying a place I had wanted to hike for years, the Snake River Trail in Idaho. Since it follows a river, I wondered whether it might be closed in and without views. Well, not to worry, the views were jawdropping.
Gear used on this trip:
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[@DJ-pp9yg]

Great video: See any snakes that early in the season?

[@DJ-pp9yg]

No snakes.

[@ShastaBubba]

Nope. No snakes or bugs, so it was the perfect time to be there!

[@pilowespo]

Great video! Enjoyed the trail perspective. I liked that there was no music just nature and your comments. Well done! Thanks for sharing!

[@ShastaBubba]

Thank you very much! I appreciate the feedback, especially since it was a bit of a test run to try it without music. Works for Joey!

[@ChrisHufnagel_Polymath]

Very cool. I've driven to Imnaha and explored in that area. Nice to see these other areas. Thanks for taking us along.

[@ShastaBubba]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching!

[@birddogfarms6981]

Enjoyed watching your trip, Dan.....!

[@ShastaBubba]

Thanks for watching!

[@rogermiller9048]

Nice hike and footage!

[@ShastaBubba]

Thanks for watching!

[@billhaney8160]

Incredible scenery. Thank you for the morning inspiration over a cup of coffee. Watching your adventure was a great way to start my morning

[@ShastaBubba]

Awesome, thank you!

[@randyclark5287]

Ffrfffffff the fffffff to the fffffffffffffff to f to FF and I

[@patrickrohan7662]

Thanks for sharing. This is my first planned day hike in Idaho. I imagine the ranch location would be my turnaround point.

[@ShastaBubba]

Good choice! I was surprised by how much fun this hike was and plan to do it again someday.

[@thefalconwithlazers]

Your channel is awesome! Everything I want to upgrade you have a sick review of what I’m thinking about buying. Then I get a hiking vid like this to cap off my research session

[@ShastaBubba]

Thanks so much for the kind words, really appreciate it!

[@mattvittal]

Looked like a great trip. Thanks for sharing it with us! It looked like you were using a cnoc bag with the sawyer later in the video. I find the Sawyer to be a little bit of a hassle squeezing water through it, so I bought a second cnoc bag and use the sawyer cleaning coupler to connect them for a lightweight gravity filter setup that works great. You have the option to still squeeze the water through the filter when on the go while hiking, but at camp you can let gravity do all the work for you. I don’t think I would want to go back to using just the filter on the end of a smart water bottle at this point.

[@ShastaBubba]

Good tip, thanks! The Cnoc bag definitely worked better than the water bottle.

[@jakobjj]

Nice video. Really enjoy the relaxed pace and joyful lack of generic music. Although pretty in spring, I guess the ranches with (fruit?) trees must be lush havens when leafs come abound. Almost a little like west coast of Norway those ranches, guess the western states has it all, except tropics and arctic tundra.

[@ShastaBubba]

Glad you enjoyed it! Leaving out the music was an experiment, so really appreciate the (positive) feedback! It is beautiful country, but probably can't hold a candle to the famous coast of Norway. Hope to see it someday and visit the land of my ancestors. ;-)

[@fredmcdonald5067]

So glad you were able to get out there this year! Such a unique hiking environment! I turned back at Sheep Creek on my trip, as well, but hoping to go back and hike the whole thing some day or maybe even tie in with the Seven Devils, although that vertical seems a bit daunting. Great job with the video! Excited to see what other adventures you get up to this summer!

[@ShastaBubba]

Hi Fred, I was hoping you'd see this! Thanks for the tip; chatting with you last year was certainly one of the nudges to try this trail. We had plans to head up Sheep creek and into the hills for a return loop to Kirkwood, but ran out of steam, so I'm itching to go back again too and make the extra effort. Happy trails!

[@fredmcdonald5067]

Ahh, the Stormy Point/Sawpit Saddle route! That is the next route I would like to do when I return to Hells Canyon, along with maybe making it all the way to Granite Creek some day. We seem to be thinking alike again. Definitely have been to a lot of the same places: Pintler Loop, Wind Lakes, "secret lakes" in the Missions, some Bob routes, etc. I'm guessing you will be on your way down to Shoup, ID next spring to do the east end of the main Salmon. Surely you have seen Northwest Wanderer's film of Corn Creek to Lantz Bar?

[@ShastaBubba]

@fredmcdonald5067 I did see that video and enjoyed it too. I have actually already done that trip, but it was 10 years ago, before I started making videos.

[@A.B.I.-if4il]

This is a great video, it really inspires me to think about makeing trans atlantic plans, coming from the uk there is nothing like this here, but this makes me think that with the right planning these locations are within my reach , thank you !

[@ShastaBubba]

It warms my heart to have inspired you. Happy travels!

[@Fizzyfuzzybignbuzzy]

Bubba the CNOC vecto bag is a necessity for the squeeze. Easier fill and way faster filtering

[@ShastaBubba]

Thanks! I actually had one along and tried it later in this trip. Worked better, but I'm still sticking with my Steripen! 😉

[@Dentspeed]

Reminds me of the Scottish highlands. Beautiful

[@ShastaBubba]

Very cool, thanks! Hope to hike there sometime.

[@DrJohn493]

Thanks for showing me a part of Idaho I haven't paid much attention to. And thanks especially for the Big Bar airstrip footage. Has the smoke let up in your part of Montana?

[@ShastaBubba]

Ha ha! Figured you would like that. We watched 4 planes total take off and each took a different flight path to climb out of the canyon. No smoke for the last week or so, thank God!

[@DrJohn493]

@@ShastaBubba The plane you videoed taking off and turning right up that canyon looked like he'd been there before. Good to hear the smoke has eased up, at least for now.

[@CharmingGecko]

I prefer to use a platypus bag with my filter so I don't have to keep letting air in. I'm using the Platypus Quickdraw and love it because it's capped on both ends.

[@ShastaBubba]

Thanks for the tip!

[@logictd567]

How was the Kakwa on this trip?

[@ShastaBubba]

Worked great! That tall left side pocket is great for holding the camp chair and didn't get any moisture inside the pack, despite lots of rain.