June 8 – Auger Falls

Yesterday lived up to its forecast. High around 12C, cloudy with some rain and a bitterly cold wind. We stayed home.

Today we were back to bright blue skies. The strong wind was still around and the high was in the mid teens C.

We first did a quick stop at the Twin Falls Farmers Market. I would guess there were about 25 booths today. They say that they have 70 members but I guess it is early in the season.

Everybody was bundled up against the chilling wind.

Some leather art.

And the usual suspects.

After a quick tour, we left with a VERY sweet cinnamon bun and some sourdough bread.

Then we drove back down in to the Snake River Canyon, passed Perrine Coulee Falls, to the Auger Falls Trailhead.

The trail is only just over a mile to the falls but we check out every nook and cranny so it was 3 hours before we got back to the car.

This area is mainly used by mountain bikers. We saw lots in the parking lot but none out on the trail. We only saw two other hikers so as usual we were along most of the time.

We took a wide dirt road out to the falls and then a narrow mountain bike path, that more closely followed the river, on the way back.

We parked underneath one of the many waterfalls coming off the southern wall of the canyon.

The wind was pushing the water to the side as it fell.

Heading out on the road. This picture is looking back eastward to some of the other waterfalls and far off in the distance is the Perrine Bridge.

Looking westward down the canyon, with another ribbon falls on the north wall.

It was a very flat easy walk out to the falls.

Auger Falls is not one large drop but a series of shorter ones.

Our first look.

The photosphere.

We continued a bit west to see the river flowing down the rest of the canyon.

Some cactus on the river bank.

Westward the canyon seems very straight so you can see a long way.

A zoom shot.

The photosphere.

Looking back east towards the falls.

Moving back towards the falls, we climbed down one of the gullies to try and find a place out of the wind to have lunch. We should have waited as it didn’t have a great view.

It’s hard to capture the scale and size of the canyon walls.

The houses on the rim help a bit.

Water was dripping from the wall in a lot of places.

There were a few clouds in the sky and I tried to wait for a sunny spot to take the pictures but I actually kind of like this one with the shadows.

Looking west from the top of the main falls.

The photosphere.

There are two more drops above it.

And a wide area where the river sometimes overflows, full of weird shapes and holes.

Jennie is near the middle of the picture above.

Her looking back at me.

The photosphere from where I am standing.

The photosphere from where Jennie is standing.

Lots of potholes.

And strange scaly rocks.

A comfy chair.

Starting the walk back along the bike path.

There used to a gravel pit down here. The trucks used to come down a very steep zig zag on the north wall and then cross the river on a now abandoned bridge.

The waterfall on the left, below, is where the car is parked.

Almost there. By now we were pretty hot, even with the wind.

And then home.

The park is almost full tonight. Whereas, we are the biggest RV in most of  the campgrounds that we stay at, here there are some monsters so we are on the small side.