Oregon’s 218-mile loop drops you into North America’s deepest gorge

It’s wilder than the Grand Canyon

You don’t hear much about the northeast corner of Oregon, and that’s part of what makes driving through it feel like you stumbled onto something the rest of the country missed.

The Hells Canyon Scenic Byway wraps 218 miles around the Wallowa Mountains, cutting through ranch valleys, river canyons, sagebrush flats, and mountain forests.

You’ll pass through ancestral Nez Perce land, which they called the “beautiful valley of winding waters. ”

The gorge ahead drops nearly 2,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon, and that’s just the opening act.

The Nez Perce called this valley home for centuries

The Nez Perce lived in this region long before any wagon wheel touched the dirt. Mild winters, salmon runs, and plentiful wildlife made the Wallowa Valley a natural home.

That changed in 1877, when settlement conflicts forced Chief Joseph and about 250 men, women, and children to flee toward Canada.

They made it to within 40 miles of the border before capture in Montana.

Pioneers had already started rolling through on the Oregon Trail in the 1840s, and gold strikes in the 1860s brought miners flooding into the southern Wallowa Range.

A gorge that drops 7,900 feet to the Snake River

Hells Canyon doesn’t just edge out the Grand Canyon in depth. It beats it by roughly 2,000 feet, plunging about 7,900 feet from rim to river.

The Snake River did the carving over millions of years, cutting along the Oregon-Idaho border. For 40 miles of the canyon’s 125-mile length, the drop exceeds a full mile.

Congress set aside 652,488 acres here in 1975 as the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. You can read those numbers all day, but standing at the rim is something else entirely.

Stand at 5,400 feet and look straight down into the canyon

A paved two-mile spur off Forest Road 39 takes you to the Hells Canyon Overlook, sitting at about 5,400 feet.

From here, you look out over McGraw Creek, the canyon floor far below, and Idaho’s Seven Devils Mountains across the way. Interpretive panels explain how all of it formed.

The site has paved paths, parking, restrooms, and picnic tables, so it’s easy to spend a while.

If you want the view from river level, detour to Hells Canyon Dam and the Hells Canyon Creek Visitor Center.

Ride a jet boat past ancient rock art on the Snake

The Snake River through Hells Canyon throws some of the biggest whitewater in the Pacific Northwest.

Jet boat tours push deep into the gorge, past basalt cliffs that tower overhead, ancient rock art, and wildlife along the banks.

If you want to get wet, rafting trips run from single-day floats to multi-day trips through the full gorge.

Three rivers here carry Wild and Scenic designations: the Snake, the Imnaha, and the Rapid. Steelhead and sturgeon pull anglers from across the country to fish these waters year-round.

Walk past life-size bronze sculptures on Joseph’s Main Street

Joseph sits right at the base of the Wallowa Mountains, named after Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. Oregon designated it the state’s first Art and Culture town, and you can see why the moment you hit Main Street.

Life-size and monument bronze sculptures line the sidewalks on permanent display. The tradition started in 1982 when Valley Bronze of Oregon opened to serve local sculptors.

Multiple galleries fill the downtown with bronze, painting, and mixed media. You can even tour the Valley Bronze foundry and watch sculptors work from start to finish.

A glacier-carved lake with the steepest gondola in North America

Wallowa Lake sits deep blue and glacier-carved at the foot of the mountains.

A 2,000-foot-thick glacier called the Bennett shaped the basin during the Ice Age, leaving behind tall lateral and terminal moraines that frame the shoreline.

The Wallowa Lake Tramway lifts you 3,700 feet in about 15 minutes to the 8,150-foot summit of Mount Howard.

Built in 1970 with Swiss-made gondolas, it holds the title of steepest vertical four-passenger gondola ride in North America.

At the top, 2.5 miles of summit trails give you views stretching across three states.

Oregon’s largest wilderness holds 50 alpine lakes

The Eagle Cap Wilderness sprawls across roughly 361,000 acres, making it Oregon’s biggest wilderness area.

People call the granite Wallowa peaks “Oregon’s Little Switzerland,” and once you see them, the nickname sticks.

More than 50 alpine lakes sit scattered among the ridges, including Legore Lake at 8,880 feet, the highest in the state.

About 535 miles of trails wind through the backcountry, from easy riverside walks to serious summit pushes. Mule deer, elk, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, black bears, and wolves all roam this range.

Spot bighorn sheep and bald eagles along the drive

More than 350 animal species live in the Hells Canyon region, and you don’t have to hike deep into the backcountry to find them.

One of the largest elk herds in the country moves through the canyon and surrounding mountains. Bighorn sheep show up regularly on the rocky slopes and grassland benches along the gorge.

Bald and golden eagles patrol the Snake River corridor, especially in winter and early spring.

The Imnaha River, which the byway crosses, serves as a key spawning ground for chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

Five small towns give you five different reasons to stop

La Grande anchors the western end and got its start as a rest stop on the Oregon Trail.

The town of Wallowa holds the Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center, which celebrates Nez Perce culture and hosts the annual Tamkaliks celebration every July.

Enterprise, the largest town in the valley, is where you’ll find outfitters and river guides. Halfway got its name as the midpoint between Pine and the old Cornucopia gold mines.

Between towns, the byway climbs the Minam Grade, where you look down over the Wild and Scenic Minam River and the ridges beyond.

Baker City still has wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail

Baker City sits at the southern end of the loop and once went by “Queen City of the Mines.”

The downtown historic district holds more than 100 buildings on the National Register, including the Geiser Grand Hotel, built in 1889 and fully restored.

Five miles east of town, the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center tops Flagstaff Hill.

The 500-acre site reopened in May 2024 after a three-year renovation, with hands-on exhibits, a full-scale wagon train display, and living history demonstrations.

One mile of original wagon ruts still cuts across the grounds.

Give yourself two days and fill up before you go

The full loop takes a minimum of eight to 10 hours behind the wheel, but two days or more lets you actually stop and take it in.

Forest Road 39, the mountain stretch between Joseph and Route 86, closes from mid-October through mid-May when snow blocks the pass.

Once you leave the main towns, you can go 80 miles or more without a gas station, so fill up in Baker City, La Grande or Joseph before heading into the backcountry.

You can drive the loop in either direction, starting from Baker City heading east or La Grande heading north.

Drive the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway in Oregon

If you want to see all of this for yourself, the byway starts at exit 304 off Interstate 84 near Baker City or at exit 261 near La Grande. Baker City sits about 300 miles east of Portland, roughly a five-hour drive.

The closest commercial airports are in Boise, Idaho, about 130 miles from Baker City, and in Pendleton, Oregon.

Valley sections stay open year-round, but Forest Road 39 closes seasonally with snow, so check conditions before you go. You can find route details and road updates on the official website.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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