Question re river outfitters for wildlife viewing

[Giesela1000]

I am thinking of traveling to Washington for a week in early/mid Sept to just......see the nature.  Coastline, beaches, trees, birding, wildlife viewing.   Its pretty hard to figure out an itinerary but I'm working on it. 
I had the thought that maybe a short river trip (not a whitewater thing) with an outfitter might be a good way to see wildlife. 
Have no idea whether this is feasible...do they usually only book groups for fishing?  Do you have to book months ahead? 
Throwing it out there. 
May post a help with itinerary question in a different forum if I can figure out which one. 
I know this is not a true hunting or fishing question but I find that these forums are often great places for advice for any type of wildlife enthusiast. 
Thanks for any replies. 
Gies

[Seatown5]

there is a ton of good stuff on the sauk river.  Really though any of the rivers offer scenic floats that are about four miles.  Might try the skykomish, wenatchee and also i think the Yakima has some potential also.

[gasman]

Send a PM to Little Dave, he is a river guide (or at least he was the last time I talked to hime)

[boneaddict]

Yakima you can drive the whole canyon, and its more intresteing in October when the Sheep start rutting.  The Methow is very beautiful, but then again you can drive it all.  Lots of homes along the river anyway, so the ambience is more for the valley.   If I were to do a float, I think I would look into the Deschutes.   You can have a big float through big country and camp a couple days on the river.   September would be a very pleasant time to do it, though it might be hard to book an outfitter as the stealhead are going pretty strong that time of year.  A very pleasant trip and there isn't a highway right next to you.

[Seatown5]

If i were you i would listen to bone addict.  If ever there was a guy i was going to follow around or listen to it would be him.  Keep kickin ass bone addict

[jackelope]

Yakima you can drive the whole canyon, and its more intresteing in October when the Sheep start rutting.  The Methow is very beautiful, but then again you can drive it all.  Lots of homes along the river anyway, so the ambience is more for the valley.   If I were to do a float, I think I would look into the Deschutes.   You can have a big float through big country and camp a couple days on the river.   September would be a very pleasant time to do it, though it might be hard to book an outfitter as the stealhead are going pretty strong that time of year.  A very pleasant trip and there isn't a highway right next to you.

I did 4 days and 48 miles on the upper Deschutes out of a boat...Warm Springs to Maupin, Oregon. Amazing trip, one that I will never forget with tons fof wildlife. Hells Canyon would be a great trip too...sheep, deer, etc. I hear the Klickitat is a nice float too. The Grande Rhonde is beautiful country if there's enough water. I've floated it twice, late summer early fall and both times had to drag the boat through skinny water(not a big deal to me).
I know a guide on the Deschutes I can put you in touch with, and Mac Huff on the Rhonde is good. They're both fishing guides so I don't know if they'll do scenery or photog trips, especially at that time of year. That's really good steelhead time on both rivers.

[Giesela1000]

Thank you for the replies.  I have never been to the PNW.   I am not fully up on where all the rivers are but I get the impression that most of these are in the east or east ish? 
Perhaps there aren't suitable rivers within a few hours of Seattle? 
I am hoping to come out for about 5 days for the first time.  From reading other
trip reports it seems that Olympic is a good 2 days easy.  Nisqually NWR, Mt. Rainer.....
Washington has a lot to see.
Are there any closer rivers that might do until I can get back and see the east side (and south to Columbia R and NW and......)?

Gies

[jackelope]

I don't know of any rivers that I would float with the pure intention of wildlife viewing within a couple hours of Seattle. If wildlife viewing was looking at some birds or something like that, then you might be ok. Most of the rivers have roads close to them or parallelling them which would make it a lot easier to view wildlife from...
There's a lot more wildlife viewing done from a car than on a river in a boat.
The Olympic Peninsula is a great sightseeing destination...I'd head to the national park for the elk and deer and what-not.
You can drive a couple hours east of seattle to the Yakima River and look for sheep, but as Boneaddict said, thats a lot cooler a month or 2 later when they're rutting. There's still sheep and deer to see and the scenery isn't half bad, especially if you get out of the car and go for a hike.

[dscubame]

Research the Quinalt Lodge on the peninsula in the rainforest.

[Ripper]

A really nice day trip, or over nighter would be to drive North Cascades Highway(20) from Mount Vernon to Winthrop. It's an absolute beautiful drive along the Skagit River. You'll see Bald Eagles, possibly deer, and if your lucky like I was Saturday, you'll see a herd of Elk. There is a large field along the way that the Nooksak herd feeds in regularly. Winthrop is a neat Old West town. If you want more info on the drive, PM me and I'll tell you more about it.  Mark

[Giesela1000]

20 looks amazing but I would have to do that instead of Ranier I think. 

My wildlife list would start with River Otters, then American Pine Marten, Fisher, mink, weasel.  None you can predict at all but at least with River Otters you know they are around water:)
I did find a tour on the Nisqually(sp?).  Not sure if it would be worth it or not...is that river and area pretty crowded?  I will be stopping at the NWR for birdwatching. 

Thanks for the rec on the Lodge.  Everyone seems to have their own favorite and I have to choose where to stop in the Olympic NWR.  Physical issues limit hiking right now.

[jackelope]

I think you're going to have a hard time seeing any of those around here....not very common at all.

[gasman]

You would have a better chance of seeing most those animals listed around Mt Rainier, with teh exception of a river otter, they are very hard to find and I only come across them by accident 

Rainier is a good bet. Spend a day or two driving around the MT. camping, visiting the different visitor centers and hikeing some of the trails 

[Giesela1000]

All those rivers and no River Otters?  Say it isn't so! 

Hopefully the Fisher will take off
http://www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/fisher-reintroduction.htm

Beautiful river pics btw, really jealous

[runamuk]

Couple thoughts for you....coastline drives you can drive the skagit valley and chuckanut very good chance of seeing bald eagles among other birds.  Wrong time of the year for the skagit river for eagles nestingand really that is about the only true river wildlife float I could think of off the top of my head that isnt more geared toward fishing or white water rafting...  The Olympic Penninsula driving the hood canal lots of scenery and birding and then of course you can go to the park and look for elk and see rainforest.  An alternative would be drive down hwy 101 viewing the pacific beaches coastline to Astoria then make a run up the gorge taking in that scenery as well.