Moon craters, Snake River, Waterfalls

We spent a few days in Twin Falls, Idaho: a place I visited long ago when Darren was a toddler.  Way back then, it was a charming small town, but those days are no more.  Old town is now lost in major urban sprawl; however, I have to admit, I remain enamored of the place.  With its population in the range of 50,000ish, it has everything a person could want in the way of shopping amenities, and it has the Snake River and many other watery places with all the sports activities associated with them.

Our initial attraction, though, (well, the señor’s, anyway) was Craters of the Moon National Monument.  I had been there and done that, and was just about lava-ed out, that is until we arrived and began checking it out.

It really is a most amazing place, as our walks up the sides of splatter cones showed.  To think of molten rock blooping up from the depths was incredible.  I don’t know how far down those throats were, but we couldn’t see bottom and there was a slight sulfury odor emanating from within.

And then there are accessible lava tube caves, irresistible!  We chose the longest one for our adventure, primarily because it has sufficient openings that artificial light is not required.  I have to admit I didn’t quite know what I was letting myself in for, but that seems to be the story of my life.

Indian Cave as it’s called, was formed during one of the more recent flows - 2,100 years or so ago - and is part of the Shoshone lore; they would have seen the eruption happening.  There are stones placed in a circular pattern near the entrance.  It is unknown exactly what their purpose was - ceremonial perhaps.

The guide brochure informed us that it is possible to scramble through Indian Tunnel's 800-foot length to the far end if one is willing to climb over a rock pile in the middle.  That sounded easy enough, but it was a lie.  The “rock pile” turned out to be a wall of bouldery rubble that had fallen from the ceiling (best not to think about that!), and was followed by several more.  So just about the time I thought I had made the grade, so to speak, another hurdle was before me. 

I was still smiling when I took this selfie; that was before I climbed that rock wall only to discover how much more was ahead. 

The only other group we saw in there exhibited great wisdom when they turned back at "the wall".

And that opening in the ceiling to get out!  Do you see it in the photo below?   No, of course not; it's nearly indiscernable.

That tight fit was the final insult, but with a bit of patience and scooching around and hoisting myself up, I made it.  A young man who was behind me was quite patient as he waited for the old lady to not only get her footing, but to stop for photographs every few feet.  I even snapped him to give a sense of the last section of lava tube I’d just crawled through.

One wild cave experience was plenty for that day, and with the wind howling strong enough to almost knock a person down, additional above-ground hiking was less than attractive.

The only wildlife we saw was a goldfish; however, we did add Clark's nutcracker and golden eagle to the bird list.

 

Water, water & still more water, with a proposal thrown in. . . .

The Snake River Canyon’s walls are so precipitous and deep that it near took my breath away to begin the descent by car.  

And then a sidetrack was in the offing at one of many waterfalls through the gorge right by the road.  Even better to discover that we could climb down to where we could get behind that long plunging cascade.  

Too bad that Chris’ knee chose that moment to feel glitchy.  We decided that it would be wise for him to remain up top while I went down to enjoy the crescendo of water splashing onto rocks.

It was awesome and all that; however, the day’s highlight was when I met a woman on her way down.  She let me in on her secret: her brother was going to propose to his lady and she was planning to hide to photograph the event.

I jumped right on that boat; I would photograph the romantic session from up top.  I met the happy young couple as they made their way down and as I rushed to get into place. That sweet feller got right down on one knee, popped the question and from my vantage point, it appeared that she said yes.

As I witnessed the event, I could see that the sister’s vantage from behind a boulder was not the best.  Even though I hadn’t had time to put on my long lens, I thought my shots might be better, so we wrote a note giving her my email and offering to send the shots.

Then we put the note on the wrong car!  There were only two, so I assumed that one was his and the other hers; however, she must have gotten dropped off.  The day was saved when they showed up just before we left and we could make the offer personally.  It was fun to be a part of that family’s happiness.

Shoshone Falls . . .

With the pronunciation of Shoshone not to be confused with that of the Indian tribe, everything Anglo with that name has only two syllables.  We were straightened out on that issue exactly the way Prescotonnians make a point to correct furriners who get it “wrong”.

No matter how you say it, Shoshone Falls is spectacular, cascading farther even the Niagara Falls!  

At the time we were there, the flow was limited by the generating plant so that it didn’t cover its full span, something that is usually only seen in springtime.  No matter, it was quite the thrill to see it.

There is so much to do around Twin Falls that we didn’t make a dent in it.  

We found a hot spring in a neighboring town, but once was plenty for that one.  It consisted of three swimming pools of varying temperatures, nice to soak but not an overly attractive site.

The Snake River in Twin Falls (by the way, the twins were reduced to a single cascade before being drowned in a lake), is popular for kayakers, paddle boarders and fishermen.  I was fascinated by the kayak launch-and-land apparatus in the photo below.  By using that clever setup, a person can launch and land themselves without getting into the water.  They use the notches to insert their paddles and pull themselves in the boat.  I would love to see that implemented at Prescott lakes!  (That person looked quizzical about why I was taking her photo, but is probably accustomed to weird tourists.)

Base jumpers, boating on the Snake . . .

It was great fun watching the base jumpers leaping off of the I. B. Perrine Bridge, a span that is in of itself quite the feat of engineering and construction.  At 486 feet high and 1,500 feet long, it is thought to be the only bridge in the country where base jumping occurs year around.

Jumpers make their way to the bridge's center, climb over the railing (or in some cases, balance atop the railing), and take the leap.  They typically guide themselves to a specified landing pad and then hike up the canyon wall carting their pack, often returning to do it multiple times.

 

 

 A local super athlete and instructor, Miles Daisher, got himself into the Guiness Book of World Records by utilizing the long daylight hours of summer solstice to do 63 base jumps in a day, during which he climbed over 29,000 feet of rock - higher than Mount Everest - to get himself back for each additional jump.  He was 48 years old at the time.  He is renowned not only in Twin Falls, but internationally for incredible feats as a stuntman and for creating new sports.

We took a boat tour on the Snake that sounded as if it might be a bit on the boring side.  The actuality was far from that: I was so happy we did it.  Our boatman, Paul, was a diver and all-around Snake River enthusiast, full of information about all things river.

One part of the tour that I had not expected was a half hour when we offloaded at the Pillars Falls and were able to explore a rocky shelf that is sometimes underwater.  We had learned about three deep holes that had been scoured out during the great Bonneville flood (between 13 & 15,000 years ago) that gouged out the Snake River Canyon.  Paul has dived in two of them, a very precarious endeavor because of wild currents: he said he dove with a guide rope held on shore, and at 60 feet of depth, his bubbles were still being sucked downward.

The biggest hole has not been explored; an elite team from Mexico is scheduled to dive it next month.

As usual, I digress.  Back to the Pillar Falls area - I so wanted to have more time there.  To say it was stunning does not begin to portray the beauty, nor do the photos.

Those are the gargantuan pillars for which the falls are named.