Two weeks ago, as I was driving along I-84 headed east from Boise to Heyburn. As usual, I was putting along in the right-hand truck lane, when I looked to the right and caught a glimpse of a really amazing gorge. I needed to get to my campsite, but I decided I would come back here when I could, so here I was today! (My return trip west also included staying in a commercial campground to get some much-needed laundry done. Generally, I dislike commercial campgrounds, but I had three weeks worth of dirty clothing and bedding, and none of the state parks I had stayed in recently had laundromats.)
Malad Gorge is part of Thousand Springs State Park, and goes directly under the freeway. It was created by the Malad River cutting through soft under-rock and the upper harder layers breaking loose over eons of time. This section is called the Devil's Washbowl.
By the way, the sky is slightly cloudy, but also contains a lot of smoke from the California, Oregon, and Washington fires. I cough every time I go outside.
As the river and gorge passes under the freeway, there is a small pedestrian bridge. This photo was taken looking south, downstream and away from the freeway. This is the view that caught my attention as I was driving two weeks ago.
This was also taken from the pedestrian bridge and looks upstream under the freeway.
There are several places you can pull over as you drive through this state park.
Downstream, there was this description of a small dam.
To the right of the dam and hydroelectric plant is a salmon ladder.
Another view of the river just before it dumps into the Snake River. You can see the Salmon ladder to the right.
Overall, this was a good day. I got to see several things I had never seen before.
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