Our last blog ended with our bike ride, heading west on the rim of the Snake River gorge looking at the setting sun. Today's blog starts with us kayaking east on the Snake River looking into the rising sun. As we started to kayak this morning, we took a picture of that bright morning sun peeking out from behind the Perrine Bridge.
When we crossed under the bridge, the sunlight lit up the other side of the canyon walls and bridge for better pictures. We got up early this morning--at 6:30 a.m. We wanted to beat the heat, as well as the crowds that we expected on this popular river on a Saturday.
That's what the new friends that we met on the river this morning were thinking as well. We meet some of the nicest people in our travels, and this married couple and his father were great tour guides this morning.
They verified that the animal we spotted in the water this morning was a beaver.
When we've spotted beavers in the past, they tend to duck under the water with a tail slap, never to be seen again. But this one stayed with us as we floated down the river.
In fact, we got pictures from different angles and different lighting because he stayed with us a surprisingly long time this morning.
That morning sunlight it lighting up the canyon walls, that are quite green down here near the water.
When we floated beneath the bridge, we were disappointed that no BASE jumpers were out this morning. We thought that would be fun to watch from the water.
That's when our new kayaking friends called to let us know they just spotted jumpers on the bridge. Sure enough, we could spot them with their helmets on, and one crazy guy (in the dark shirt) had already crawled over the rail and was ready to jump.
It was from a distance, but we got to see several BASE jumpers from the water because of that call!
As we continued down the river, we learned local stories from the oldest member of that kayaking trio. He remembers well the day that Evel Knievel made his famous attempt to jump over this river. He also remembers the failed practice attempt earlier that week, so they all knew that the jump wouldn't be successful. That's why there were no people waiting to welcome Evel on the other side of the canyon. He also recalled the huge crowds of people that showed up to this little city to see that jump. Some had just enough money to get here, and then stayed to panhandle because they couldn't afford to leave. Then there was the story of the truckload of beer that the visitors broke into, and Evel told the crowd that he bought the beer. But local natives knew that he never paid for it. We heard interesting stories on this float trip.
The water was calm and crowds small as we approached our half-way point. This is Pillars Falls, and our new friends will turn around here. It's interesting to know that even though they have lived here their entire lives, they have never made the longer kayak trip that we planned for today.
Pillars Falls is a sad place today. A 15-year-old girl was swimming with friends two days ago in the falls, when she disappeared. The search-and-rescue crew has been looking unsuccessfully for the body for two days, and their boats are parked here already this morning.
To continue up the Snake River, we must portage over the rocks to the right of the falls.
We have more weight in the boat today with food and water for an all-day trip. So we took a break in carrying the boat more than once.
After our successful portage, we were back on the water for the less-traveled part of this trip. The birds here see less human traffic. They looked on curiously as we floated beside "duck rock."
We noticed a large bird floating in the air above the river. When it landed on the rocks high above us, we tried to take a picture. It's far away and in the shadows, but we think we just saw the first golden eagle of this trip.
Our destination today is Shoshone Falls, but we are seeing some impressive waterfalls making their way down the canyon walls on the way.
We see that another group of kayakers got up early this morning as well. They are beached beside a neat cave opening. This is where the kayaking tours end. The tour company takes you and your kayak to Pillar Falls in a motor boat, and then a guide leads you to this cave for a distant view of Shoshone Falls.
But we're not content with that distant view. We kayaked on for better views. Shoshone Falls plunges 212 feet down to where we are kayaking on the Snake River.
We were surprised to see that the water roaring over the edge makes for a misty view from water level. We rowed to an area quite close to the main falls, but the mist completely obscured the adjacent falls.
Between the mist in the air, and the fact that we were looking directly into the rising sun, it was hard to take good pictures of the falls this morning.
We see that the viewing platform we stopped at yesterday, is also engulfed in the mist.
For a different angle, we rowed right through that mist to get the clearest view of the day.
From here we can see that the falls on the far right are completely dry. We've seen pictures with water roaring over the entire crescent of tall rocks. But with the lower summer water levels, there isn't enough water in Snake River to flow over these rocks closest to us.
Shoshone Falls is known as the "Niagara of the West." In fact, it is taller than Niagara.
We were pretty well soaked from our trips through the mist to get closer to the falls. So we decided to take a break and dry out at the cave. Mark dropped Denisa off at the entrance, to show just how big that rock wall is.
Then he rowed toward the falls. People that paid for the guided tour certainly don't get the close views that we enjoyed.
After being in the sun all morning, it's nice to enjoy the shade in the cave. Mark parked the boat and came in for a snack.
Then we were back on the Snake River, heading home with the sun at our backs. Even though the water is roaring over the falls, the current is minimal in the river, so we'll be rowing both directions today.
We had read that this paddle would take all day, but it's only 10::45 a.m.
We're enjoying more ducks as we head back towards the pickup.
It didn't take long before we were back to Pillar Falls, for the portage back over the rocks for the last half of our return trip.
Where we were the only ones portaging early this morning, now there is a steady line of people carrying boats. When one of those people offered to take our picture together, we gladly accepted.
It's sad to see that the search and rescue team is still working at Pillar Falls.
Even though we couldn't see this area well from a distance, it looks like there are falls and small pools with tricky currents throughout this area.
They have yellow police tape stretched across deeper areas where the divers are searching today.
Normally, we would have explored this area and taken great pictures of those giant pillars of rock. But today, we are praying for the family and friends of the young woman that died here two days ago.
As we got closer to the end of our trip, we saw a crazy number of kayaks on the water. You can see them as a line of brightly colored tiny boats at the bottom of that gorge wall in the picture below. At one point we stopped and could count fifty different boats in our sight. We checked with the kayak rental company, and they have every one of their boats on the water today. We are so glad we had the river almost to ourselves early this morning.
We got our last view of the Perrine Bridge from the water as we neared our take-out point. The BASE jumpers are gone because it is too dangerous to jump when the air warms up. The thermals can prevent a parachute from opening properly on that short trip down.
Wow! You got some great pictures of the falls!
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