Saturday March 12th, 2011: My wife and I decided to get out of the house on this sunny March day and we chose the South Fork of the Boise River as our destination. With our dog Addie in tow, we headed down into the canyon below Anderson Dam around 2:30pm.

Surprise #1:
Excellent Opal Specimen:

While standing on the bank of the river, we found some opal bearing rocks that reminded us of the ones we pulled out of the Spencer Opal Mine last year. Picking up a few of these white rocks from the river and letting the sun shine on them we saw flashes of “fire” on the opal. Below is a side by comparison specimen of Spencer Opal Mine fire opal and a Boise River opal.

Surprise #2:
Downy Woodpecker

During our 1.5 hour walk along the Boise River Road/Anderson Dam Road we heard the occasional sounds of woodpeckers hammering away on a tree. But what surprised us being able to get close enough to this downy woodpecker to take a photo of it. Cool or what?

Surprise #3
Slick drive up the canyon wall:

While the road down the canyon from Dixie was a little slick in our non-4-wheel drive truck, it got down right scary on the drive up toward Dixie. The sun started beating down on the gooey spots and turned portions of the road into “no traction areas”. At one point in the road we went from 15 mph to about 2 mph as we lost all traction. It was a nerve racking few seconds thinking I might have to back down this road in such slick condition…lesson learned.

Comments?
Go ahead and let me know what you think about this little exploration. Have a special spot that you think I might enjoy, then tell me about it.