There are moments or places on rivers that feel like portals. Like Vulcan’s Anvil, the dark and stately monolith that guards the flat-water approach toward Lava Falls in Grand Canyon. Or the Wilderness boundary on the Main Salmon, where manicured lawns and old homesteads replace the rugged expansiveness of protected land. There are also portals en route to the water, like dropping into the frenetic, motor-charged chaos of Moab in anticipation of Westwater.
And then there are the communities, the human hamlets that are also gateways to rivers. We get excited about doing our pre-trip rounds through town, and we come to associate particular grocery or liquor stores or gas stations or city parks with the river trip itself. We find our favorite campgrounds or motels to stay at the night before launch, and our favorite splurgy dinners out before days of eating from coolers.
In this short series, we highlight four river gateway towns. These are places I’ve come to know over repeated visits, before or after private trips, commercial trips, or the occasional field course. Surely you have—or will have—your own experiences to call on, your own anecdotes, memories, and impressions of these spaces between spaces, these sentinel communities that buzz at the brinks of beloved rivers.
The liminal quality of a portal, a gateway, is quite precious, as it demarcates the space between experiences, between realities. It’s good to pay attention to these in-between spaces, to notice ourselves within them, to spend a little time there before moving in one direction or another. With that, let’s spend a little time in North Fork, Idaho.
North Fork, Idaho
I first saw North Fork on August 2, 2017. Just 24 hours off a break-up and a sweaty summer of guiding rafts through Grand Canyon—I was exhausted. I was on a school bus full of strangers, at least half of them under twelve and screaming. My kayak was crammed in the back beneath haphazard piles of dunnage. I knew only one person on that bus, my friend Gia, who owned the raft company and had invited me to paddle along with her on this late-summer Main Salmon trip.
Smoke from active forest fires tinged the Idaho sky. We stopped at the North Fork Village general store for the things that delight rafters: milkshakes, last call to buy beer, a Post Office, one last flushing toilet for a week. I milled around outside, grateful for a break from the noise, eyes stinging with smoke behind sunglasses and contact lenses. The kids and their parents flitted in and out of the general store.
From North Fork, you can head south, toward Salmon, Idaho, paralleling the river all the way. There’s excellent mountain biking and hiking in the Wagonhammer zone, and the town of Salmon has a charming new whitewater park. Folks hoping for a mellow (mostly class II) meander through the Salmon River valley might put in anywhere along the 110-mile section north of North Fork. If you want to venture farther upstream, toward Stanley, your boating options will blossom like an arrowhead balsamroot on a springtime Idaho hillside. (Check out this boating guide to the Upper Salmon.)
If you instead turn right and west at North Fork, heading toward Shoup, the steep-walled river canyon quickly takes shape and the gradient increases. The bus rattles from here toward Cache Bar, the take-out for most Middle Fork trips, and then on to Corn Creek, the put-in for Main Salmons. The Main Salmon is a dream: easy camping with big beaches; friendly whitewater that’s conducive to duckying and hydrology lessons; cold-water tributaries where intrepid snorkel-sporting icthyophiles can spy on shade-loving smolt. It’s also excellent for teaching kayaking, for learning about resource management, and examining the urgent complexities of permitting, histories, and sovereignty.
But there are other gems within the canyon, too:
The Salmon River “day stretch” features some fresh rapids that formed after recent fires and heavy rains led to significant landslides. Paddlers can choose to read and run most of the rapids or scout them from the road when you set your shuttle. The run between Pine Bar and Cove is roughly 10-ish miles by road.
For paddlers hoping for something other than big-water Salmon boating, Shoup Road offers access to Panther Creek, which has everything from class III (down low) to class V (up high) creeking. Watch for wood.
Logistical Notes
For more beta, consult the North Fork Village general store; USFS North Fork District Ranger Station; or the US Forest Service Salmon-Challis Ranger Station.
Places to Sleep/Explode your Gear
There are plenty of good camping options in the area, including USFS campgrounds like Spring Creek (18 miles downriver) and Ebenezer (30 miles downriver), and lots of riverside pull-outs where you can recombobulate your gear, picnic, nap, etc. For a pre-trip splurge, I cannot recommend enough the Village at North Fork or the Rivers Fork Lodge. Both offer full RV hookups and comfy, clean rooms.
Last Minute Provisions
If you’re headed toward the Main Salmon, North Fork is your last stop before going out of service and off-grid. Be sure to hit up North Fork Village for grocery items that may have been overlooked, extra beer, high-quality gear (with brands like local favorite Fun Luvin’ Fleecewear and Patagonia), or fishing licenses. If you’re just making a pit-stop, grab a milkshake. If you spent the night near here, pop in for early-morning breakfast burritos—be sure to call ahead to order.
Vittles
Aside from the Village’s breakfast burritos and sundries, you’ve got two nearby options: 5 miles north is Waters Edge Pizzeria; Broken Arrow Cafe is 10 miles north in Gibbonsville and serves up Mexican-American flavors.
For me, North Fork turned out to be a gateway to a love unlike anything I’ve known before. I met my husband on that 2017 Main Salmon trip, and we married at the confluence of the Main and North Fork Salmon Rivers in May 2024. We were hosted by the Rivers Fork Lodge, which might be the most perfect place to gather with your people, period. With spotty-at-best cell service, you can focus all your attention on your people and on this place.
The merging of energies at the confluence and the possibility of choice at the intersection of two river roads creates magic at North Fork. For Main Salmon travelers, this town is like a favorite rapid or camp: you won’t see it again until your next beginning. Your shuttled car or van or bus will most likely be waiting for you at the Carey Creek takeout, and you’ll head home from there, through Riggins (another gateway town worth exploring). And North Fork will be waiting for you back upstream, in that sunny little pocket of Idaho, along the banks of The River of No Return.