Hells Canyon Scenic Byway

Driving

by Plot Along: Rockies

Oregon Highway 86 and Forest Road 39 to Hells Canyon Dam, in the corner of northeast Oregon along the Idaho border. The byway runs along the rim and into the bottom of Hells Canyon, North America's deepest river gorge. It drops 7,993 feet from He Devil Peak in Idaho's Seven Devils Mountains down to the Snake River.

The paved route runs from Halfway, Oregon east to Hells Canyon Dam at the river. Forest Road 39 north over the Wallowa-Whitman ridges reaches the canyon's most-photographed overlook (Hells Canyon Overlook proper, at 5,400 feet). The full loop continues north through the Wallowa Valley but the most-driven core is the section between Halfway and the dam.

FR 39 closes in winter; the OR-86 section stays open year-round. Forest Road 39's surface is paved but narrow and slow.

Learn more: fs.usda.gov

Little Alps Day Use Area
Small Forest Service picnic area on the Powder River, named for the alpine-feeling stand of conifers at the lower end of FR 39.
Riverside Day Use Area
Forest Service day-use area with picnicking and creek access on the Powder River, just upstream of Little Alps.
Hells Canyon Overlook
The canyon's most-photographed viewpoint, at 5,400 ft on FR 39, looking east across the Snake River chasm to Idaho's Seven Devils Mountains.
Hells Canyon Creek Visitor Center
The Forest Service visitor center at the bottom of the canyon beside Hells Canyon Dam, on the Snake River. The put-in for jet-boat and raft trips into the wild heart of the deepest river gorge in North America, with the canyon walls towering more than a mile overhead.

Little Alps Day Use Area

Riverside Day Use Area

Hells Canyon Overlook

Hells Canyon Creek Visitor Center