140. Shoshone Falls

            One place that I haven’t been to for several years that is in Idaho is Shoshone Falls. That is the waterfall that gets quite a bit of attention in our state and it is quite beautiful when the water is pouring over it at full force, which it is at this time of year. The falls get the attention largely because of its proximity to the city of Twin Falls and Interstate 84. This is the time to see it. Later in the summer it can be quite disappointing because it seems to be nothing but a little trickle forming some wet rocks. This late summer trickle is due to the fact that the Snake River is heavily utilized for irrigation purposes in the desert of southern Idaho’s farming landscape and for hydroelectric purposes with several dams on the Columbia/Snake River drainages. Some water falls in the Snake and Columbia river systems such as American Falls and Celilo Falls are completely submerged under reservoirs and have been for nearly one hundred years. However, Shoshone Falls is still completely open and when the water is high it is, indeed, a magnificent waterfall on a large river very famous in the West. They call Shoshone Falls the Niagara of the West, and it is, in fact, a higher waterfall than Niagara but it is a much narrower falls so the rushing drop of the river creates an immense spray with seemingly permanent rainbows in the air.

            When you go to Shoshone Falls you may find, at least when the water is at full force, a lineup of cars waiting to get into the park. It is a state park so you will have to pay an entry fee. When you actually get in you will find parking and enough room to not feel hemmed in by crowds. At this time of year when the water is flowing you will get wet from the spray. You will get soaked from the spray. You will see many people dressed fully in rain gear when there is not a cloud in the sky. But now, I see, I’ve fallen into the tone of a travel narrative and that’s not at all what I want to express here. Instead, I want to express my gratitude for this particular waterfall. I am an Idaho boy, so who would think I could ever be alienated, or at least feel that way, in my own state? But really there are three very distinct sections in Idaho and you can feel pretty alienated in any one of them if you are from another section. The Magic Valley, where Shoshone Falls crashed down, is part of the Snake River Plain of Southern Idaho and I’m from the land of trees in the North, not the desert of the Snake River Plain. But Shoshone Falls is the oasis in the desert, the water of the river that is a unifying force of all of Idaho. It is a place where I have gone to just get drenched and feel the rainy June of Priest Lake, to feel the rainbow, rainbow, rainbow of being at home soaking wet in a dry land. The waters of the Snake River are the life blood of Idaho, and, like I said, I am an Idaho boy. That sage brush on the flat, seemingly endless Snake River Plain can make a person from the mountains and North Idaho feel alienated and alone but then the beauty and the rainbow showers of Shoshone Falls come flowing out of all those mountains and wash over you in a splendid spray that completely ignores—no,  defies—heat and sage brush and relentless sun, bringing me that realization of life that is so vital no matter where we are. And that’s where the magic of that Magic Valley cleanses me of all the dusty thoughts of barrenness to remind me of my own living, my own vitality, and it refreshes me, cleanses me (yes, the grimy Snake cleanses me) and turns a shriveled-up raisin back into a grape. Dem dry bones hear the word of the lord. Glory be to the father.