Falling for the Falls

The Trip – Day 16

Salt Lake City, Utah – Rexburg, Idaho

Idaho Falls

243 miles 

 

Into Idaho...

Morman Temple, Idaho Falls

This was to be one more traveling day, from Salt Lake City, Utah, to the small town of Rexburg, Idaho, where we'd spend the night before our visit to Grand Teton National Park the following day. We didn't spend any time in Salt Lake City, saw the lake it was named for from the highway on the way out of town, and headed north along Interstate 15 into Idaho. Though we drove through only a small corner of the state, I though that section of Idaho was beautiful – green, hilly, cool. We had planned a relatively low mileage day, so we were actively looking for a “surprise adventure” somewhere along the road. We found it in Idaho Falls, a small city named for the waterfalls along the Snake River in the center of town. We found the riverside park, left our car in the lot and went to explore the surrounding streets. A large white building had attracted our attention when we drove into town, so we walked to it and found it to be a Morman temple. We had bypassed the larger, more famous Morman temple in Salt Lake City, and this one in Idaho Falls, though not as large, was built in a similar majestic white style. It differed from the neat, if somewhat generic-looking, pink-gray brick and white-steepled Morman churches We had been seeing through Utah, around the Salt Lake City area, and now into Idaho. Built during World War II, the temple was presently closed for renovations, so we did not attempt to go in. Despite the work being done, the grounds were still beautifully maintained. We walked around the outside of the property and then returned to the river to view the falls.

Falling sideways...

If it didn't come across in the Yosemite post, I'll state it here: I love water – lakes, rivers, oceans, creeks, streams – but I am particularly fond of waterfalls.  Water falling from a height, even a small height, I find fascinating. Every waterfall has its own unique quality and form. The falls in Idaho Falls were unique in that the falls, though not high, fall parallel to the banks of the river rather than perpendicular, as most falls do. Of course, for this to happen, they had some man-made help. The town was originally known as Eagle Rock, the river through town having a series of rocky rapids. The name of the town was changed to Idaho Falls in 1891 and eventually a retaining wall was built in the rapids for a hydroelectric power plant, creating a long, low water fall. Despite its non-natural origin, I, of course, loved the falls. The engineers who had designed them used some of the river rocks to create an attractive hybrid of man-made and natural formations. The greenway along both sides of the Snake River was a lovely treed park with paths and viewing areas and some folksy-cute topiary wildlife. We walked up and down the falls section of the river before heading up the road to Rexburg for the night.

  

 The hotel we were staying at, though relatively nice, was having server problems when we arrived. I still needed to find some maps and information for our trip to the Grand Tetons the next day, so I asked the guy at the hotel desk for the nearest coffee shop that had Wi-Fi. He instead recommended the Idaho campus of Brigham Young University, a few blocks away. We took our lap tops and camped out in comfy chairs in the hallway of what was a large lecture hall building. It was church-like in its atmosphere, with signs indicating it was a “dedicated” building and to behave with proper decorum. We did, as did the students that wandered through. The halls had large murals depicting scenes from the Bible and the history of the Morman church. When we were done with our need for the internet, we walked around campus where we found a lovely large formal garden. We passed students enjoying the beautiful summer night, clean-cut couples with the definite air of courting about them. They seemed very friendly, saying hi to us in passing, probably wondering if we were visiting alumni or faculty they had yet to experience. We were, after all, POACA...

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. – Martin Buber

Next:

Grand! Grand! Grand!

Part I

The Majesty of the Tetons

The Trip – Day 17

Rexburg, Idaho – Dubois, Wyoming

The Grand Tetons National Park

195 miles