Lower Imnaha River Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
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- Start point: Cow Creek Trailhead
- Ending Point: Eureka Bar
- Hike Type: In and out
- Distance: 9.8 miles
- Elevation gain: 610 feet
- High Point: 1,200 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: Spring through fall
- Family Friendly: Yes, for older kids
- Backpackable: Yes
- Crowded: No
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Hike Description
In 1898, prospectors found copper ore at Eureka Bar, near the confluence of the Snake and Imnaha Rivers in Hells Canyon. It was a low-grade ore and, in 1902, miners spread the story that the seams also contained gold. Soon, about 2,000 gold fevered men were camped at Eureka Bar, and the hotel/saloon, post office, and building for a stamp mill were constructed, financed by East Coast investors. The Lewiston Southern Mining Company ran a sternwheeler, the Imnaha, up the Snake, using cables attached to iron rings on the riverside cliffs to winch the boat up rapids. The stamp mill was loaded on the Imnaha in November 1903. The steamer began to haul herself over the whitewater at Mountain Sheep Rapid, two miles below Eureka Bar, but snagged her paddle wheel on the cable, stayed afloat long enough for all aboard to jump to safety, and then broke up and went to the bottom. With no stamp mill and no discernable presence of gold, everyone left. When the first mailman arrived, he found a ghost town.
The miners built a wagon road, now a trail, down from Cemetery Ridge to Eureka Bar. A sawmill near Buckhorn Lookout supplied the settlement with timber for construction. Today, early season hikers willing to brave the Dug Bar Road can take a solidly constructed easy trail down the lower reaches of the Imnaha River Canyon. The route is a veritable rock causeway built into the base of the cliffs, but sometimes rising above the river. In spring, the Imnaha is a force of roiling whitewater that sometimes runs over the trail, and four-foot pressure waves surge through shaded narrows. Poison ivy lines the trail most of the way, and you may also encounter grasping blackberry vines. Fall is another season to visit, but summers are very hot and dry.
Begin at the Cow Creek Trailhead, where you may see the fish trap used by the Nez Perce Tribe for monitoring Chinook and steelhead populations in the Imnaha. The fish monitors have tents set up on both sides of the river. The ramps for the old bridge are also here. Find the unsigned trail leading off along a grassy rise before hugging a cliff and passing an old gatepost. A grassy bowl blooms with balsamroot in the spring, while other common wildflowers at that time are white prairie stars and pink Snake River phlox. Riparian vegetation includes white alder, black locust, netleaf hackberry, boxelder maple, chokecherry, red osier dogwood, and wild rose. Look up to your left for a multi-tiered seasonal waterfall. The river is joined on its east bank by Cow Creek. Pass through a dense thicket, and note a towering spire as you pass under powerlines. Most of the rock in the gorge is 260 million-year-old diorite. The trail forms a narrow causeway between the cliffs and the Imnaha’s whitewater.
You’ll notice the tailings from a mine adit across the river, where you’ll also see a small stream tumbling through a narrow, dark cleft. Cross a creek near the tailings from the Bonnie Doone Mine, and pass a shallow prospect in the cliffs. The trail rises where the Imnaha narrows. A cone of tailings spills from an old prospect on the other side of the river, this venture connected to the river mouth by an obvious but disintegrating trail. The trail rises higher above the river where you are protected from falling by a low rock wall fixed with concrete. The first of three short bridges dated 1954 spans a narrow chasm. A locust tree-shaded campsite below is opposite the deep shaft of the Mountain Chief Mine, which now supports colonies of several species of bats. The mine tunnel runs for 700 feet through the rock and has another portal above the Snake River. Hiking up along the cliffs, you’ll pass a 20-foot prospect and pass over the two other wooden bridges. From here you’ll get a view to the confluence of the Snake and Imnaha Rivers.
Arrive at a wide cobbled bar at the bottom of Hells Canyon. There’s a campsite at a grove of twisted hackberry trees with a mine adit above them. This one is bat-gated, so you can’t go far in. Follow a sandy track across a grass bench, with the Snake River spilling over the Imnaha Rapids to your right. The most spectacular remnant of human endeavor here are the stone terraces that once formed the 13-story smelter that never received its stamp mill. Pass between large boulders (there’s another short prospect in the cliffs above), and reach the foundation of the short-lived hotel that once serviced thirsty miners in its saloon. There’s a vertical shaft in the cliffs above the hotel. The trail continues as a rock-buttressed causeway around the slope to a trail post above a lone ponderosa pine. The site of the actual town of Eureka was in this area, but very little evidence remains. This is a good turnaround point for your hike to Eureka Bar.
From here, the Imnaha Trail leads up Eureka Creek to eventually reach the Eureka Creek Cabin, the Eureka Wagon Road Trail, and Cemetery Ridge. The road track to the old ferry landing continues a short distance up the Snake on the other side of Eureka Creek.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Outhouse across the river from the trailhead
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and Wilderness
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Lower Imnaha River Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Lower Imnaha River Hike
Guidebooks that cover this destination
- Hiking Hell’s Canyon and Idaho’s Seven Devils Mountains by Fred Barstad
- 50 Hikes in Hells Canyon & Oregon’s Wallowas by Rhonda & George Ostertag
- Hiking Oregon’s Geology by Ellen Morris Bishop
- 100 Hikes: Eastern Oregon by William L. Sullivan
- 100 Classic Hikes in Oregon by Douglas Lorain
- 100 Hikes in the Inland Northwest by Rich Landers & Ida R. Dolphin
- Hiking the High Wallowas and Hells Canyon by the Wallowa Resource Center
- Oregon Hiking by Sean Patrick Hill
More Links
- NE Oregon: Imnaha River to Hells Canyon, March 2016 (Evans Outdoor Adventures)
- Imnaha River Trail 10/16-18/2015 (NWHikers)
- Hells Canyon, Imnaha River to the Snake River 4/27-28/13 (NWHikers)
- Downriver Imnaha River (Hiking From Here)
- Eureka Bar (Oregon Adventures)
- The Beginning of Oregon (Grand Tour of Oregon)
- Imnaha River, Oregon (National Wild and Scenic Rivers System)
- Imnaha (sternwheeler) (Wikipedia)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)