After spending a good deal of time at Shoshone Falls (and then making a quick trip to a hardware store to pick up batteries for my camera) we drove back the way we had come, this time in search of the Twin Falls.
They were only a mile from Shoshone Falls, and as before, we dropped down into a huge, rocky canyon before parking the Tahoe and climbing out in search of whatever it was that we would find in this new-to-us place.
Also as before, we found a silent parking lot, a silent and empty park, overlooks that.........over looked.........and a series of falls that were unimpressive aside from the promise of what they COULD be at a different time of year.
No matter.
We needed to begin thinking about heading home.
We had three hours or more of driving, and so we did not spend a lot of time at Twin Falls...............
Also as before, Twin Falls was a monochromatic blend of endless rock, dam and cables, low flow grey water and grey sky.
Before posting this blog I briefly searched the Internet, trying to find some more information about the Twin Falls, but instead found this:
As I read the info I finally realized just how much we had crammed into a few hours, and just how little we had actually seen.
There were bloated falls and a fast moving river, the lush green of spring growth, canyons and extraordinary bridges and more falls.
Even a town that looked blue collar and bleak on this rushed late fall day, that LC and I had barely seen in our hurry and therefore knew little about.
As I stood on one more concrete walkway looking through iron bars down at the falls and river I again - unexpectedly - found myself missing the crashing waterfalls of Tennessee.
I couldn't relate to all the rock.
Was surprisingly overwhelmed by the uninterrupted beige and grey that lay all around me
Was overwhelmed by the hard edges of only rock and concrete, and suddenly and unexpectedly I found myself needing the soft edges of lush green-ness...................
After loading back into the truck we followed one more sign that we knew would take us down to a boat dock and quiet pools of water.
Heading towards a public restroom that stood in the shadow of a huge rock bluff, I looked up at it and was suddenly enamored.
The rock face had all kinds of character to it and (if you looked closely) endless subtle shades of green and brown and grey.
As I stood regarding it for a moment I remembered carefully studying a rock face up in West Virginia while hiking on trail during the middle of a race.
It had started at midnight (as the races put on by this particular race company were prone to do, which usually meant that we had already been up for sixteen hours or more before the race even started) and we had been on the move for well over 24 hours.
As we were trekking I looked ahead of me and saw a huge rock face to the left of the trail that looked very much like this one.
As I kept walking and kept looking at the rock, I actually saw a face.
Eyes. A mouth. A nose.
I kept watching it in my overtired state, fully expecting that the rock face would at any moment begin talking, in some deep and slow Harry Potter movie kind of way.
It didn't. But at the time I expected it to...............
The water by the boat dock was quiet and calm, and was surrounded by the fading green of late fall in south eastern Idaho...............
Apparently Daniela hearts somebody, whose name I could not make out.
After the sharpness of the terrain surrounding the dam and the falls, it was calming to wander on grass and among the trees, surrounded by still water for a short while.
We wandered. We looked. We enjoyed.
And then it was time to finally begin heading for home................
We had seen them from the interstate as we made our quick trip down to Twin Falls earlier in the day to pick up a Russian SKS, and as LC sped back towards Blackfoot on our way home I snapped pictures of these windmills.
There were many through this section of the highway, just as there are many on the outskirts of Idaho Falls, and throughout this section of the road there were signs informing travelers that we were in a high wind area.
These are wonderfully relaxing and graphic things to look at.
Extremely tall and towering over the terrain, they are veritable farms of windmills that slowly and methodically and silently rotate while creating power.
There are places across the country that have a NIMBY attitude about them (Not In My Back Yard), but I love the sight of them................
As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.
I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the
avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens,
and get as near the heart of the world as I can..................John Muir
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