Hike to Mesa Falls

Last Saturday we decided to take a day hike to a beautiful place outside of Ashton called Mesa Falls. The weather forecast for that day said there would be rain, but as we checked more closely before we left, it seemed as if the storm had already passed over Mesa Falls and was on its way to drench some other poor small Idaho town. Well, that's what it seemed like. The truth is something entirely different. It was nice and sunny when we left our little town and so we headed out with Jordan and Priscilla. It took us about 30 minutes to get there and it was a beautiful drive. There was an upper part and lower part to the falls. We visited the upper falls first and then hiked a mile to the lower falls.

Zoe was digging the falls.

The beautiful upper falls. Waterfalls are such a magnificent creation and to me, so mysterious. One never gets to see the underside of the waterfall. The water never turns off. It's constantly going. I always wonder what the rocks under the falls look like.

After awhile, the lil' toaster got a lil' tired.

This was the lower falls. Just as magnificent, just a little, uh, lower.

Now, as we were at the lower falls, it started to sprinkle. It was over a mile back to the car and we hadn't eaten. The rain started coming down a little heavier. After a little searching around, the wonderful Ryan found a tree we could sit under and not get wet. The challenge was that we had to go a little over the edge of the cliff to get there. Once there, we noticed that little Zoe's diaper was wet and it had gotten her little pants wet. The rain had now turned to hail and the wind was starting to blow. We got Zoe out of the carrier, put a changing pad on Ryan's lap and proceeded to change her. Her poor little body was being exposed to all the elements yet she remained happy throughout. I would have gotten pictures of it, but I was, you know, busy changing her. We got her changed and then we ate lunch. We could not believe how the rain and hail were coming down. We didn't know how long it was going to last either. We finished what we could of lunch and saw that there was a small break in the deluge of water. Little did we know that there was so much more to come.

Here we are under the tree. We weren't prepared at all for the rain we encountered. During that small break in the rain, we got back up over the cliff and headed back to the car. We'd walked maybe 3 minutes when it started coming down again, in buckets. It was pouring on us. It kept pouring on us. Ryan led the pack with Zoe on his back (nice rhyme, I know), and as it continued to rain and then hail, we decided we'd better make a run for it. There was lightning and thunder and I was waiting, just waiting, for a bear to come popping out of the woods. We'd seen signs that they were around and I just didn't want one more thing to add to our already precarious situation. You know that feeling you get in your shoes when your socks get wet and it's all squishy and cold? We started getting those feelings. Before long, we were all running. It finally dawned on me that running wasn't doing any good. I was soaked. SOAKED. There was no break in the weather. Ryan was like Forrest Gump as he ran. He was nowhere in sight. I'm glad he ran as fast as he could because he had the little toaster in tow. He later told me that she was just as happy as could be while all this was going on. We finally got back to the car and got Zoe out of her wet clothes. Her lips were turning purple. The car we were in had no heater so that was one more strike against us. It took us about 10 minutes to get all unloaded and to get Zoe dry and bundled up and we were finally back on the road home. None of us could believe that weather. It certainly was an adventure and we had a fun time. I posted some video below of us under the tree. Enjoy!