Day 4, and the winds came...

It began with the jumpers walking up onto Perrine Bridge, thinking about the rising winds, and coming back down. Sigh. Glad we had such good conditions yesterday!

Even the famous Twins of Twin Falls were forlorn. Oh, wait...

The jumpers were philosophical, but even the monument at the site of Evel Knievel's attempted jump across the canyon seemed depressed. Someone apparently stole the plaque in the center. Now that I have seen the Canyon, Knievel's adventure seems totally mad. Good publicity for him and the Snake River Canyon, though.

 

Looking for truth and beauty, as always, I went to the Ritter Island State Park. Like the long-promised water flow increase at Shoshone Falls, nothing opens for the season around here until Memorial Day. The park was closed, but a waterfall and stream on the entrance road was a grand consolation prize. I waited a couple of hours in this gorgeous spot, waiting for the Sun to get high overhead and light them up. It was worth it.

 

 

The entire landscape here seems to have rivers flowing under it everywhere. Something has to nourish the hay which feeds the cows that give the milk, so the farms tap into the water to run their giant circular watering systems.  Those giant watering machines make the view from space geometric  https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5433669,-114.7569174,14626m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

 

When these underground rivers encounter  a cliff, such as here above the Snake River, the waterfalls appear as if from nowhere.

 

 

Below the falls is a placid stream: 

 

 

 

Just as I was finishing here, the clouds moved in. By the time I got back to town it was raining. Whew! The guardian angels saved my pictures again.

 

No jumpers today, but here is a moment from yesterday. As a collegiate springboard diver long ago, I can suggest to this young man that the tuck has to be very tight or you don't rotate quickly enough, and it can ruin your whole day...

 

 

The local jumping club's photographer was standing next to me, and from the look on her face he wasn't intending to land that close..

 

OK, perhaps a more sedate jump?

 

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And remember, when they finish their half-minute flight, they have to lug their gear all the way back up here...

 

 

Off to the Sierra Nevada in the morning tomorrow, so the next blog chapter may have to wait a day or two.

 

Can't wait for the next chapter!