Jumping the Creek

We spent much of our time in Idaho at my sister's house, and it was very nice to relax and spend time with her family, especially getting to know my nieces better.  One day we headed up to a local canyon to take a hike.  I'm glad we took the hike, not only because it was a fun adventure, but because fire swept through the area the next month:

A wildfire in the Jump Creek Canyon area southwest of Marsing charred about 1,400 acres and was continuing to burn Sunday evening....The Bureau of Land Management has responded to an unusually high number of wildfires this year because a lack of rain and snow has left grasses especially dry and fluffy.--from the Idaho Press-Tribune

I hadn't been to my sister Cheryl's house since 1999, when they were still building their house.  In fact I don't even remember spending much time inside the house that trip--I'm not sure if I ever saw the upstairs--as my parents and I stayed in our tent trailer in the driveway.  So this was a long overdue trip to see my sister, brother-in-law, nieces, and nephew.  We didn't have too much on the agenda apart from relaxing and celebrating a couple of birthdays (my wife and sister share the same birthday--exactly twenty years apart).  One the same day that we hiked up Jump Creek Canyon we also drove into Oregon so that Amy could say that she visited the state.  Of course we'd like to visit more of the state in future years (including the Pacific coast), but it would have been a shame to be so close--in far western Idaho--and not to visit.

The area around the canyon is a bit dry--it isn't exactly a rainforest in the area, but it still has a rugged western beauty.

I think my wife and sister enjoyed talking to each other on this trip.  I do enjoy opportunities to have my wife meet members of my family.  I've met most members of her family--but there are plenty of my relatives that she hasn't met yet, or hasn't seen very often.

My niece and I both took pictures of several flowers and other plants along the hike.  You can see some of her pictures on my sister's blog.

The path wasn't entirely in shade, but there were several nice spots where we got to walk through trees.

Can you see an animal in this picture?

We saw a couple apparent caves along the hike, and of course my "would live in a cave if he could" nephew had to check them out, ;-).

The waterfall was quite pretty.  I need to figure out how to take more detail shots of water like the right hand one above.  I enjoy shots like that and sometimes only end up taking one or two.  If I take multiple pictures then I have a better chance of getting a really good one instead of perhaps just ending up with one bad one and no alternatives.

The lighting was also fun to experiment with.

My nephew and niece climbed up to another cave area--and Amy and Cheryl also climbed up there.  So I grabbed their picture before they came down.

Have I ever mentioned that I love the zoom on my camera?  It might not be telephoto exactly--but it is 35X. The picture above was taken with no zoom utilized, the one below with maximum zoom.

On the way back Emily spotted a lizard--but I didn't get my camera out fast enough to get any good shots apart from this one.  I tried to zoom in but I couldn't get the camera to focus before the lizard ran off.

I'm not sure what the area looks like now after the fire--but I'm sure that if plants were burned off that they'll grow.  It is part of the way that God designed to work--fire cleanses and allows for growth and regrowth.  One of my upcoming Yellowstone blog posts will especially illustrate this necessary cycle.

~Matt

PS It isn't exactly from the canyon, but I can't not post this video I took.  Western Idaho is somewhat dry, so for agriculture farmers rely on irrigation (not that they don't elsewhere, I've just noticed that there was quite a bit of irrigation in the area, even for some homes and lawns in certain areas).  I took this short video one morning at my sister's place while the irrigation system was dumping water into the cornfield.


PPS You'll find all of the above pictures (and more) in this album: