Hell's Gate State Park, ID, A family road trip looking for info

Looking for some info, just starting a plan a road trip from San Cruz to Idaho. Doing it with the wife, dog and girls (6 & 7). It's going to be our longest road trip to date and plan on meeting the in-laws in ID. We plan on camping the whole time.

We are looking for camping and fishing spots to stop at on the way. Planning on two nights and three days to get there, then 2 to 3 nights at the state park. Thinking of going thru OR and bee lining it home thru NV.

Any advise would be appreciated. Plan on leaving shortly after July 4th.
PS only the dog and I fish.

Were taking the mini van and could take float tube or kayak
Thanks
J. Ice

153 views hu......
No then but crickets
Sounds like a lonely drive
Oh well

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Originally Posted by ICE

Looking for some info, just starting a plan a road trip from San Cruz to Idaho. Doing it with the wife, dog and girls (6 & 7). It's going to be our longest road trip to date and plan on meeting the in-laws in ID. We plan on camping the whole time.

We are looking for camping and fishing spots to stop at on the way. Planning on two nights and three days to get there, then 2 to 3 nights at the state park. Thinking of going thru OR and bee lining it home thru NV.

Any advise would be appreciated. Plan on leaving shortly after July 4th.
PS only the dog and I fish.

Were taking the mini van and could take float tube or kayak
Thanks
J. Ice

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Well, I will take a stab at this, though I am not the most experienced...

Going up through Oregon I guess you could drive from Santa Cruz to Klamath Falls easily in the first day. There is some good fishing around Klamath Falls on the Williamson River, lots of public as well as paid campgrounds along that way.

From there, you could probably reach your destination the next day if you wanted, or you could take a slight detour up through either Ontario Oregon (Owyhee R.) or Yakima (Yakima R.).

Reds Fly Shop runs a pretty decent campground directly on the Yakima River and the evening hatches out there can be pretty monumental mid-summer. The scenery is very nice. You could also do a short evening float from the campground down to the fly shop and they would run shuttle for you. There are a few nice small streams up that way as well above Ellensburg.

If you are into steelhead you could do the Grande Ronde River on the way up also, instead of the Yak. That's an isolated area, and it might be too early to get into fish to roll the dice on it. You would need to do some reading and calling around.

Staying on 5 and going further west on the way up, a long first day could get you to the North Umpqua. Here too, could be too early...but if there are rumblings of SH being hooked here and there right now, it could be very good in 3 weeks.

You could also do the Owyhee on the way back. Either way, that's a special river, I would try to add it as a stop one way or the other.

Very cool thanks my looking at the drive thru NV was pretty bleak. OR definitely has some options. I was thinking about detouring to the Metolius.
Thanks again

will PM you one interesting NV thing.

Very tight schedule. You may have problems finding campgrounds that are open.

Any route you drive, it will be around 16hrs drive time.
So, just cut in in thirds- drive about 5-7 hrs a day. Camp by river where you can fish evening to dark.

Day 1- Santa Cruz to Chiloquin, OR 7hr drive (stay at Collier Memorial State Park- on the Williamson River)
Day 2- to Mouth of the Deschutes River, OR. 5 hr drive from Chiloquin.
Stay at Deschutes River State Recreation Area
Steelhead should be in the river by then, if not the trout fishing is good.

Day 3- Deschutes River St Rec Area to Lewiston, ID (Hell's Gate)- 5 hr drive


Kelly Creek and North Fork of Clearwater are world famous for cutthroat on the fly and should be on everyone's bucket list.
They are within 2hrs east of Lewiston. Area is also known for Steelhead. July might be early. North 40 is a regional chain of fly shops and I think they have one in Lewiston.

On the return, if you are going to drive straight thru or even if you are going to drive in 2 days I suggest staying on Interstate 80w and I-5s for safer travel. It is almost an hour longer than Lewiston to Winnemucca to Santa Cruz, but only 1st 3 hrs are on a 2 lane road (Lewiston to Boardman)--- road from Lewiston to Winnemucca is 9hrs of 2 lane road full of curves and undulations--- might not be the best with young children.

Look forward to your trip report.

Jim

Re: Deschutes, there are already a few SH in the river, I have seen a couple of pictures of fish taken in the past 7 days.

@ICE: Hwy 95 near Riggins closed yesterday due to rock slide. That takes away one of your route options.
No information as to when it may reopen.

Jim

Thanks fellas for the info truly appreciate it. Looks like the trip has been nixed fears of covid.........
Eh..
Still got the time off so just got to get on the water.
Thanks again

J. Ice

That is too bad :( hope you got out locally... I have been out to eastern Idaho twice in the past 4 weeks, common sense approaches on the road go a long way to avoiding the 'rona...fishing was spectacular this past weekend.

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Originally Posted by ICE

Very cool thanks my looking at the drive thru NV was pretty bleak. OR definitely has some options. I was thinking about detouring to the Metolius.
Thanks again

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Fires near the Metolius could cause smoke problems. Check before you head that way.