Idaho Pics

I've tried to put these pictures up several times, but Blogger acted like it took them and then gave me the stupid red X boxes. Anyway, better late than never. These are a few of the cool things I saw in Idaho. Lots of potatoes, but this stuff too.

This is the Snake River Canyon from just under the bridge to Twin Falls, Idaho. I'm sure it wasn't at this spot, but this is the canyon that Evel Knievel jumped in the 70's. The green spots you can see on either side of the river are golf courses. My co-worker that was with me in September was drooling over these, but he didn't get a chance to play them. The best thing about this canyon is that you don't suspect it until you are right over it. This part of the Snake River Valley is really, REALLY flat, so you are going along a very flat very straight road and then BAM, you're over this crazy deep canyon. Very cool.

This is Shoshone Falls, a couple miles upriver from the picture above. Most of the snow had yet to melt when I was there, so most of the flow was going through that power station on the left. For comparison, that building is several stories high. During the late spring and early summer, all the rocks on the right are covered by the waterfall. The pictures I've seen look very impressive, but I've never been there at the right time.

This was a tree growing out of the lava at Hell's Half Acre, the geological point of interest at the rest stop on the way to Idaho Falls. The lava is pretty thick and is only about 4000 years old, so only really hardy things have grown over it so far. These trees are relatively old, but they apparently have a rough life. I'm sure the cold of winter and the hot dry of summer make for tough living in a place with no flowing water and no wind shelter.

This is the dam at the falls in Idaho Falls. The dam runs about a quarter mile along the length of the river to divert water through a power station at the lower end of the falls. It was very windy on the day I was there and the waves running along the river held together as they went over the falls. The lines you can see above looked like they were running along the face of the dam. It was very cool. I took a video with the camera I had, but it had a hard time focusing, so it isn't very impressive. This picture will have to do.

This is old fish hatchery in Idaho Falls. Now it's part of a park on an island between the river and the power plant diversion canal. It's also a graffiti gallery. I've seen better. Some of the stuff is concrete, but a lot of it is made out of local stone, which in this case is lava rocks. I've only seen construction like that in Hawaii, so it was interesting and unexpected.

There. I had a few other pics that might have made it too, but Blogger gave me enough trouble with these, so they'll have to do.