More from Idaho…

If you remember from last time, my Olympus camera was ruined by the raging Snake River…it got sloshed on while I was rafting below the Hagerman dam. A few days later I was browsing at the flea market at Billingsly Creek a couple miles from the RV park and happened upon a camera sitting on the shelf with other older cameras. Its a little blue camera by Fujifilm and has a big XP label on the front. The battery was dead of course and the guy was asking $20 for it so I passed because it didn’t really look like much of a camera and it wouldn’t turn on to test. For one thing, it doesn’t have a telephoto lens. But printed on the front cover is: “Waterproof” & “Shockproof” and also strangely enough, “WiFi”. Huh.

Went home and looked up the model number of the camera, Fujifilm XP95, and found that it has pretty much the same specs as my Olympus, with the exception of the 24X optical zoom telephoto. The Fuji only has a 5X optical zoom. Understandable since the thing is waterproof and to achieve that, you can’t have a articulated lens extending from the body of the camera. And it’s listed at the same price as a new Olympus.

Went back to the market and bought it for $15. Back home, hooked up a power supply to it and voila’, it works! Ordered a battery charger and 2 new batteries and after they arrived I now have a $100 camera for $30 that I can dunk in water or drop or whatever and it will survive. I’d learned to baby the Olympus, but I’d ruined two of them so far over the years so maybe it’s time to try a different model. I will miss the telephoto feature of the Olympus, but the shockproof, waterproof, and dustproof features of the Fuji make up for it.

Anyway, here’s the first picture I took with the Fuji, good 16MP resolution, color saturation is to my liking, anti-shake works well, nice 3″ view screen:

A couple days later, headed to Malad Gorge State Park that was pointed out to us rafters when we were on the Snake. It’s only 8 miles from Hagerman. On the way, stopped to read this roadside sign. I tried to spot the fossil beds but they are too far away from this spot. But the gorge is sure interesting…took a lot of water from the melting glaciers up north a bit to scour these valleys 12,000 years ago. Took this shot of the ridge above me to show the volcanic rock. OK, back on the road and a few minutes later I’m at the entrance to the park. After paying the $5 fee at the entrance kiosk headed over to the first way point. That’s the freeway bridge crossing over the gorge. That lower steel bridge is a walkway so you can visit both sides of the gorge. I did plan on going over there later, but it turned out I didn’t make it. It was hot the day I visited. And a look down into the Malad Gorge. And looking downstream. This is what they call the Devil’s Washbowl and I imagine if there was more water it would be spectacular. Not today though. One of the feeder streams. The vast majority of the water in the gorge comes from springs! Over 100,000 gallons a minute gushing out from hundreds of springs along the gorge. Pretty, huh? Took this shot because the water is the same color as the South China Sea.

I missed that waterfall as I drove along the road. Didn’t see the sign for it.   Took this shot to show the tiny man made lake that’s above the gorge. This entire area was a farm at one time. The state took over the gorge and a buffer zone area to preserve it’s unique qualities. There was going to be a large hotel situated right on the edge of the gorge years ago before the state stepped in and stopped it. This pond holds water for irrigation and farm animals. It’s rather polluted with fertilizer though. There are nearby farm fields where the state is growing hay I think. I happened by while they were harvesting the fields.Off in the distance is the Snake River Gorge where this river drains into. After going through the dam. That canal is part of the fish ladder setup. I’m following a paved ‘view point to view point’ road. It loops around just after here and visits a smallish cove along it’s route.

So this is Woody’s Cove. A branch off of the Snake gorge. It too has a small spring feeding into the small creek at the bottom. And here is the spring. Its headwaters aren’t very far from this point, but I didn’t hike to it today. All those trees down there would be a tip off to earlier pioneers that there’s a creek. But it’s nearly impossible to hike down there, especially with animals. Here I took a telephoto shot towards the mouth of the cove. It’s hard to see but there is a creek down there.

And after that visit, stopped at this junk yard to check if they have any Saturns here…still trying to find an ECM from a Saturn that had Cruise Control so I can restore mine. But nope, no Saturns. They did have this neat roadster though. So that’s all for today. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of south east Idaho and the Snake River Gorge. Thanks for reading!