Come along with me........

Let me take you on a journey with me and my friends, April and MaryGail who invited me to go along with them to Hellgate and back. It began at 5am yesterday morning. Besides it still being dark outside, there was fog I had to deal with, so getting to their house was a slow drive for me. Once over the hill toward Medford the sun began to shine. From here on out we had beautiful weather and a day to remember.

April & MaryGail

We arrived at the Hellgate Jetboat Excursions office to pay for and pick up our tickets. We were a little early so we sat down to some delicious pastries and hot coffee while we waited.


We mosied around the lovely store before going down by the river to join our driver, Johnnie, a tour guide for 23 years who had expert knowledge and the history of the Rogue River and the critters and their habitats. He was a man of great humor and made the trip very fun and fascinating to all.

We saw bald eagles, a turtle, deer and several fishing boats up and down the river. Look at the size of salmon these gals caught! That's a lot of fish.





The sights were so beautiful all along the river. I especially liked seeing flowers in bloom along the rivers bank and every now and then a stray flower sticking up out of a boulder all by itself.

After continuing down the river and into the mouth of Hellgate, it was an awesome site to see the boulders and how the river has formed them and to see how high the river had risen at one time, well above where some of the homes today are situated.

Mouth of Hellgate

From here we went back to have lunch at the owners private home called the OK Corral.

A large and beautiful log home with a huge veranda overlooking the hillside to the rivers edge.

We were served barbeque chicken, scalloped potatoes, green salad, rolls and cornbread and for dessert, berry cobbler with cream. There was iced tea and lemonade to drink and the views from the veranda were spectacular as well.

Once lunch was over we were back on the river where Johnnie gave us a different kind of ride to remember. He occassionally would do a 360 turn or come to a quick stop were some of us enjoyed the spray of the cold water. I did'nt hear anyone complaining and I think it made a few of us feel young again.

It was hard to say goodbye to the river and head toward home, but back on the road we took a detour along the countryside and found a couple of produce stands and picked up a few vegetables to take home. Closer to home, between Medford and Klamath Falls, we stopped along the roadside and picked blackberries. There are some really nice plump ones and some still waiting to ripen. You think I got a large enough bucket? I could have picked for days. I think I got enough blackberries to make a really nice cobbler.

Hope you enjoyed the journey into Hellgate and thanks for stopping by.