this is how your typical rig going into raft the bruneau is loaded.  3 men, 3 cats in one s10.  why an s10?  when you see the narrow, steep road into the canyon you will be glad you are in a small truck!

getting to the bruneau is as difficult, or perhaps more difficult, than floating the bruneau itself.  the launch site at indian hot springs is 62 miles from the town of bruneau and that includes your brief detour to leave a rig at the take out.  it will take a minimum of 3 hours to travel that 62 miles.  don't be fooled by the fact that the first 50 miles of road are relatively good.  it is the last 12 miles or so that will take you 2 hours to navigate.

the first 50 miles of road are maintained.  however you will still find considerable mud holes and stretches of water along them.  the last 12 miles of road become increasingly bad.  you can expect 1/2 mile stretches of water covered road.  the water hides the boulders that are waiting to rip your tires and tear up your undercarriage.  you will notice that where once you could travel 50 mph now you are down to 20 mph, then 15 mph, then 10 mph.  finally, as you drop into the canyon, the last 2 miles take you 45 minutes.

after driving for what seems like an eternity you finally see the canyon about 3 miles distant and you think ah it's not much farther now.   about that time the road turns south and parallels the river.  you don't really notice this though.  then about 10 years later you see the canyon again and by hell it's still 3 miles away and you think to yourself that perhaps you missed a turn!

about the time you are sure you missed a turn you climb a small hill and suddenly you are at the canyon!  actually you are at a side canyon down which you drop into the main canyon.

looking down into the canyon the road doesn't look so bad, but once you start down your impression will change.  the right side offers you a nice steep drop from which rescue will be extremely difficult.  don't slide off the right side!!  if the road is relatively dry, as shown here, the drop has much less pucker factor.  when it is wet it is difficult to even stand up on!  here you can also glimpse just how steep the upper portion gets.  the upper portion is not the steepest! ;)

the first part of the road is mostly dirt.  steep, but just dirt.  if it is dry then no big deal, really.  if wet you may want chains!  farther down the road gets much worse.  i am not sure these photos do it justice.  one thing though is that you can see my tire tracks.  add a foot to the width and you will see where your larger rig's tires will be ;)

seriously it will take you almost an hour to drive down this road.  most often you need people guiding you and removing fallen  boulders from your path.  this s10 just squeaks by ground clearance wise, provided i drive very slow!  it is not as bad as it looks.  it is far worse than it looks in these photos! ;)