Russ took one day off during the week of the high school kids' spring break and we drove to Twin Falls to see the Shoshone Falls that everyone was raving about. Due to all the snowfall this winter, the Falls are running at their highest capacity in over thirty years. We were not disappointed...very, very wet, but not disappointed. It was a very cool day, so getting drenched from the mist was not that comfortable. We all dried quickly, though, and enjoyed the rest of our day's adventures.
After viewing the Falls we took the southern scenic route back to Boise. On this route which follows the Snake River there are several fresh water springs that flow up and out of the cliffs along the river. The five or six locations of 1000 Springs State Park are named appropriately. We took in two of the locations: Ritter Island and Malad Gorge.
Ritter Island is so named because this land area is an island formed from the Snake River on one side and fresh water springs on the other. In the early 1900s, Minnie Miller built her dairy farm on this very island. It was well known for its prize Guernsey cows and state of the art (at that time) dairy barns. Ms. Miller was very interested in how the nutrition of her cows affected their production so did lots of testing. It was interesting to see pictures of the cows wading in the springs. Not sure any permit would be given today to have any sort of dairy on this island!
The following little note made me laugh, especially the line, "there must be something to life outside the barn."
Not sure if you can read the plaque, but it says, "Idalia of Edgemoor, Born April 27, 1918; Died December 1, 1937. Herd Mother." The burial place of the initial prize Guernsy cow of Ms. Miller.
Having Russ and Seth in the above picture gives a little more of an idea of the size of the cliffs and waterfalls springing out of them.
Next we stopped at Malad Gorge which is actually right off I-84. It is difficult to capture in a picture how deep the gorge really is as the Malad River winds about 150-175 feet below.
The first two pictures were taken from a bridge over the gorge/river. The picture below is on the other side of the gorge looking back toward the bridge we just walked over.
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