Grande Ronde

This is a heavily tree'd section with lots of Class II and like one class III/IV rapid near mile marker 6. Most of it is unrunnable do to the fish habitat restoration efforts which have placed clusters of trees all along the river. It's not really worth it unless you're staying in the area and want something to stretch the legs- bring a packraft.

These are placed along the entire run as fish habitat.

GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. We scouted this run at low water and would NOT recommend it to anyone. The whitewater section is very short and at the top end of the run. Fish habitat restoration efforts have placed man-made strainers at regular intervals throughout the run which is mostly class I-II with meanders. The man-made strainers consist of 2-4 logs with rootballs midstream, anchored together to a rock with cable, usually one on each side of the river creating an S-turn. There is a riverwide wire fence above the short whitewater section. There is a fish dam in the lower section. And that 54ft/mile gradient seems like a hallucination: looks flatter than that to me.

It's called the Stygian Steps in one guidebook which describes it as a basalt gorge. There is no gorge but there is a short steep section followed by a big riverwide log jam. No good. This is very low water, below runnable.