Ah, Idaho

As we entered Idaho (in its SE corner), we drove along the edge of Bear Lake, which straddles the border of Utah and Idaho.

Our first major stop in the state for sightseeing was Twin Falls.  As the Snake River crosses the state, it can cut really deep canyons, or spill over ever changing waterfalls.

This is actually Shoshone Falls, and there was only 1/6 of the water flowing over it compared to the spring.  We learned that you don't pronounce the final "e" in Shoshone (as I had mistakenly done since grade school) - 

As we drove across the state, we were amazed at the enormous number of acres given to grass/hay, as well as the huge stacks of hay bales everywhere.  

The hills in the background of the picture above are the foothills of the Sawtooth Mountains.  We were to be rafting through those soon.

These are the headwaters of the Salmon River, that just a few days later we were to be whooping and hollering down the rapids:

You can see why they're called the Sawtooth Mountains.

Before hitting the Salmon River for our rafting week, we took a detour up along the Idaho - Oregon border to see Hell's Canyon.  It's North America's deepest river gorge, with the Snake doing the honors of carving it.  Unfortunately, you can only get good views of it, if you boat along it through some pretty remote wilderness.  So, I don't have pictures of that, but the dammed portion of the river before that, was gorgeous.

After Hell's Canyon, we made it to McCall, Idaho in time for the whitewater orientation session; it sounded intriguing--and it turned out to be even better!  Details in the next post...