SCENIC IDAHO

 

This week's pictures, nearly the end of the road-trip,  are all from the State of Idaho.   We've spent quite a bit of time in that State  over the years (both of us grew up in a tiny town in Washington State that borders  Northern  Idaho) and we have camped in  and traveled through parts of it many times in our life.     But surprisingly on this trip we found several new and interesting places to explore.

 

 

This is Shoshone Falls on the Snake River near the town of Twin Falls.   I love waterfalls and Shoshone Falls was stunning.  We don't know why we'd never visited  before, as we have driven through that town several times in the past.    The contrast between the swiftly flowing water and the rugged Idaho landscape was fascinating.

 

 

The Park area above the Falls was donated to the city of Twin Falls by the ranchers who owned the land, for the purpose of public enjoyment — and of course we were not the only members of the public doing just that on this day.

 

 

Among all the other tourists there was also a group of plein-air painters set up at various points around the Falls.  It was fun to sneak a peek over their shoulders to see the various artistic interpretations.   (I'm more than happy to let my camera interpret for me.)

 

 

We saw these petroglyphs  in the Snake River canyon near the tiny town of Melba. Humans have lived in this area for at least 10,000 years.   We walked the trail to try to see some of the etchings left on the rocks.  They are quite faded and hard to see and the trail was fairly rugged, so I'm sure we missed a lot.

 

 

We visited the World Center for Birds of Prey near Boise.  Naturalists at the Center are among those working to re-introduce California Condors into the wild.  This vulture, the largest flying bird in North America is also the most endangered bird on our continent.  Although ancestors of the bird were alive during prehistoric times, by 1982 only 22 of the species remained.  All of these were placed in captive breeding programs at that time.   Most of the young condors born here in Idaho are released near the Grand Canyon.   

Today, the greatest danger to the newly wild condors are lead bullets.  Because the condors eat only dead animals, they may ingest particles of lead in animals left by hunters.   There is a push to stop the sale of leaded bullets, but I believe they are still being sold.   In addition to breeding condors for release, this Center also treats sick condors for rehabilitation.

 

 

 

This pretty little Kildeer was among several wild birds we saw on the grounds of the Center.   At 9 inches or so, it looked awfully small  after we had just gazed at the Condors which have over a 9-foot wing-span.  

 

 

There were lots of reasons to be glad we spent some time in Idaho on this trip.  And this amazing rainbow upstream from Shoshone Falls was definitely not the least of them.

 

 

LINKING this week to:  OUR WORLD on Tuesday; MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; SIGNS SIGNS; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.  

 

Thank you to the hosts for making these wonderful sharing opportunities available to all of us.