Mad River
Float Trip!
We opted against the white water ride and instead chose the scenic ride, so as to avoid getting wet.
Well, Matt dunked his head in and Abby and Dad jumped in.
The water was cool, but we didn’t shiver at all until we were back on land and in the bus.
Molly was our guide... she knows the river well, and was an excellent host.
And she grew up in St. Louis, in Oakville!
Along the way, Molly pointed out
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-River pelicans
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-Eagles (hard to see in the sky in the photo, but that’s what we point to “toward the left” - two bald eagles
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-eagle nest (on the right toward the end)
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-times when the water was deep enough to jump in - we were the first of the season to jump in!
The other family was nice and fun, and thanks to the Dad for assisting Matt in helping me get back into the boat each time.
The Snake River headwaters are in both Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park, and the river flows south through Wyoming and into Idaho and Washington and then into the Columbia River.
Moly shared that the winter, 2017 provide the most snow seen in years, and that resulted in significant melting and flooding.... but not quite like we have seen in Missouri recently.
The Snake River was at a record 30,000 cfps / cubic feet per second a couple weeks before our visit and was still at 24,000 cfps this day.
The River did have its fair share of trees and other things floating from the flood, but there was seemingly little property damage.
The River is shallow in spots, and as you’ll see Abby and me lay our ears on the raft, that was to hear the water moving the rocks at the bottom of the river, we were listening to erosion, as the rocks rolled and smoothed and made their eventual way to becoming sand.
Thanks you, Molly and Mad River, for the awesome float!
These are just some of the many still images we extracted from the time-lapsed movie of our float.
We saw two bald eagles; too bad they are incredibly small in this photo... unlikely you can see zooming in... apologies. sharing so you know they are there
Later on the float we saw an eagle’s nest - they are large (like back home)
Abby and I both jumped in the river on purpose... awesome fun and we were the first in the river this year (at least on Molly’s floats)! And Matt dunked his hair
The scenic ride is quite calm.. and AWESOME FUN!
Links to the rest of this travel journal:
The Snake River - Jackson, WY
Day 7 - Wednesday, June 21, 2017
