Today exploring was on the agenda so we started out the day by driving almost 30 miles southeast to the Snake River Birds of Prey National Wildlife Refuge which might be the longest title in the whole Federal system. The country we drove through, despite an altitude of about 2600′, is basically a desert. We saw lots of Paiute ground squirrels, magpies and a few hawks but the terrain appears pretty bleak and lifeless.
Once you get to the Refuge, however, things change. The Refuge is a giant canyon with the Snake River at the bottom with 700′ cliffs on each side of the gorge. Interpretive displays at the Refuge indicate that this canyon has been filled with lava five times over the last couple million years but the River has always won out, returning to almost it’s original course. The cliffs and river are stunning here. There is a great overlook about a quarter mile from a parking lot near the canyon rim where we only saw a few big raptors but hundreds of swallows who were busy eating the abundant supplies of bugs. From the overlook we spotted some dirt roads down in the gorge so after lingering at the edge for a while, we continued down the road to Swan Falls.
Swan Falls might have been a set of falls back in the day but now there is a cute little hydroelectric / irrigation control dam there. Near the dam we turned down the Snake River east bank on a well-graded dirt road for about 5 or 6 miles. We spotted some harriers and maybe a falcon cruising the bottom of the gorge. They were kept company by lots of swallows swallowing bugs. In the river were a variety of waterfowl, mostly ducks and geese. There are available BLM dispersed camping sites in the bottom of the gorge. At one spot there is even a restroom but almost all other evidence of human habitation is absent.
We finally left this beautiful spot and headed north through Nampa and Caldwell. There is a Wal-Mart in Nampa where we stopped for some supplies but other than that, there was little in these two towns to make us excited. Just regular old rural towns with abnormally obnoxious traffic lights which seem to be programmed to make traffic in all directions stop simultaneously, allowing nobody to go. After quite a bit of time awaiting the greens, we headed back to our spot in Marsing.
We got a few photos of the refuge that you can see if you click here