On the Snake River

Hi everyone,

On Monday, Aug. 12th we moved on from Boise to the southern part of Idaho along the Snake River. On the way, we stopped at the Bruneau Dunes State Park hoping to hike up one of the dunes. Even though we managed to get there somewhat early the temperature began to rise quickly and the sand from the dunes grew very hot. Too hot in fact for my feet, so Mom took pity on me and began to carry me. We went as far as the base of the dune then turned back.

These sand dunes in the middle of the high prairie are an unusual phenomenon, formed by an ancient meander channel of the Snake River. Bruneau Dunes includes a dune 470 ft high and nearly half a mile wide. Many people come to slide down the dunes on wooden boards resembling snowboards and wooden tobogins resembling those used on snow. It looked like fun but it was way too hot.

Then we drove south for two hours to Hagerman, Idaho to a cottage on the Snake River where we will stay for the next three days.  There are lots to see and do in Hagerman and we will start exploring the area tomorrow.

Here's Dad hoisting a cold one on the deck of our new home and saying " here's to your good health, and wish you were here".

On Tuesday, Aug. 13th, we started exploring the Thousand Springs State Park which has five separate parts several miles apart. The first part we went to was Ritter Island, but after driving down another narrow windy road into the Snake River Canyon, it was closed. So we took a small hike along the canyon to see a nice waterfall and an even nicer view of the river valley.

Next, we drove about 18 miles to Earl Hardy Box Canyon Springs, which a natural spring that shoots out of the side of a box canyon in the middle of a farm field. The canyon drops down about 100 feet with the spring emitting huge amounts of water from an underground river flowing at 180,000 gallons per minute.

From there we drove another 20 miles to Niagara Springs, a group of very beautiful waterfalls that cascade from the side of the canyon wall similar to the box canyon we had just seen, but much more spectacularly as you can see below. These multiple waterfalls are a national landmark that produces a huge volume of water at 250 cubic feet per second, as much as 350 feet into the river valley below.

Then we drove another 17 miles for the last stop for the day was at Balanced Rock a unique rock formation at the top of a steep canyon road. The Salmon Falls Creek Canyon, near Castleford, Idaho is well worth the trip to see it. This wind-carved rock stands 48 feet tall, 40 feet wide, weighs 40 tons, and balances on a 3-foot 17-inch rock pedestal.  It sits high above the road on the commanding ridge of Rhyolite worn away by wind and water. It was 91 degrees, so we didn't climb the entire 60-foot cliff to get to the top like some other people did.

Now I'm tired from all of our travels today, so we will try to explore more interesting places tomorrow 😌.