Turning away from the sight and sound of rushing water, we slowly wandered over to the huge information boards in the grass, that were surrounded by benches.
On this grey day I regarded the handful of benches for a moment, and I could easily imagine this being a nice place to sit and relax in the warmth and green-ness of a spring day, while watching the snow-melt-engorged water roaring over the falls and rushing further down river.
Turning my attention to the info boards I snapped pictures quickly and without really reading them.
The world wouldn't fall apart if we were on the highways for home after dark, but neither of us relished the thought of watching for antelope, deer and coyotes crossing over the desert highway, and we had seen many of all three recently..................
As always, I stopped furiously snapping pictures and found myself looking at the people in the grainy, black and white pictures.
And as always I found myself mesmerized by them.
Their clothing, their hairstyles, their modes of travel, and always always always their faces.
What were their names? How were their lives? Were they happy? What were they thinking at the very moment that their image was captured for all time in these pictures?
What was the beautiful young woman in the top picture thinking at the very moment that this picture was taken?
What were the three ragged elderly men in the picture further down thinking?
Wonderful pictures that speak to a whole different world from the one I was residing in.................
An amazing picture.
Horses working hard to maintain their footing on steep, narrow, rocky trails.
People piled high and ready to bail off their wagon at any moment should the horses falter.
The typical steadfast and stone faced looks on their faces.
I love this picture.
Actually I love all of these pictures..................
I looked beyond the picnic table and saw a paved trail that circled around to points further in the park, and then looked even further into the distance.
I could see multiple trails that had been cut into the rocks.
My initial reaction once seeing the falls was "OK.........seen it.........don't need to see it again".
But looking back on the visit now, I DO think that we need to see this place again.
We needed to see the spring melt careening over the falls.
We needed to walk the trails and eat a picnic lunch at one of these tables and see this place when it was filled with spring and green and warmth...............
We had noticed a sign when we first entered the park, pointing us in the direction of a boat ramp.
After spending a long time walking close to the falls and river, and then spending more time looking over the information boards, we all three loaded back into the Tahoe and headed in search of the boat ramp.
I hoped that it would weave closer to the falls, so that we could both see and picture them from a different angle................
After spending so much time at the falls and watching the river, it was a little startling to arrive at the boat ramp.
The water was dead calm, completely silent, and mirror-like still..............
How much must a home cost that is located right on the river and adjacent to the Shoshone Falls?
I couldn't even imagine, but I stood for a few moments looking at the nice homes on the opposite shore, that seemed to blend so seamlessly with the rocky terrain in which they stood.
Nice, but I would rather have a home in lush and green mountains..............
I had planned on snapping more pictures as we climbed back up first one hill and then a second - wanting to take pictures of the falls more closely and then a number of still pools of water that lay in rocks that were almost dry now, but which would be filled with rushing water in the spring.
LC slowed the Tahoe, I lowered the window and hit the ON button on my camera.
Nothing.
After a few minutes of gently banging it around I realized what the problem was.
I had bought a good used camera from someone we knew in Arco.
It was a good camera, but ran on AA batteries, as opposed to a battery that recharges.
Batteries were dead.
Looking sheepishly at LC I told him what was wrong. He had suggested I bring more batteries with me right before we had left the house earlier that morning.
My response?.
"Naaaah. I just put new ones in it not long ago. It's good".
It wasn't good.
One more reason to come back next spring.
We had one more set of falls to visit, but before we did that we needed to go in search of a store that sold batteries...................
I took a picture of a picture that I found on one of the information boards.
An absolutely amazing picture...................
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