Last week I was just itching to get out and have some adventure time, as always. This week I was especially antsy though, because the sun was shining. All week I was planning to spend my Saturday enjoying the sun and some outdoor activity. If I’m being honest, I actually didn’t really do much planning; it was mostly just daydreaming; I caught myself distracted a few times, in class, thinking about the options of different places I could go.
Friday night came around, and I figured I should probably start thinking a little more seriously about plans for Saturday. I texted my friends I had talked to about going out with and was checking the weather. At that point, things weren’t going as well as they had in my daydreams. The one day I had available to get out and enjoy the weather, it was forecasted to be WHAT? Stormy? Nooooooo! I should have known better than to expect another sunny day after 4 days of sunshine. I should have known that, in Rexburg, after that many days of sunshine, we are bound to have a stormy day on the forecast.
I’d like to think that I’m that person that doesn’t let these outside influences get in the way of what I want to do. I’d like to say that I’m determined and passionate enough to go through with it anyway. A lot of times I think I am that way. Not today though. My disappointment got the best of me, and I didn’t want to go anymore.
Lucky for me though, I had a friend that was a little more optimistic than I was at the time. I got this text Saturday morning, “Let’s do it! It’s warming up fast and the sun’s out so I think we should just do it.”
It didn’t take much for my spirits to be turned around; just a little friendly push is and all I needed. That simple message got me pumped again to get out and enjoy the day.
We packed up a few items for the day and got on the road to, what I thought to be, one of the most cliché places BYU-Idaho students visit–Mesa Falls. We decided on Mesa Falls because it had been a couple of years since I had been there, and my friend had never been.
I love Mesa falls because it’s just a huge, majestic waterfall only about 40 minutes from Rexburg. It really is a beautiful place. The thing that has always been a bummer for me is that there isn’t really a hike to get there. You can basically drive to it. There is a wooden path from the parking lot to the outlook of the falls that takes less that 5 minutes to walk. It’s really convenient, but I feel like I’m being gypped a hiking experience. I will say that the drive there is so beautiful, that itself is an experience worth having.
As we pulled into the Upper Falls parking lot, we noticed the first of a sequence of awesome things to come that day. It was the banner over the parking fees sign. The sign read “Get Outside Day No Fees Today.” Bam! Good thing we decided to get outside today, because apparently it’s a national holiday. We just saved 5 dollars.
Get Outside Day No Fees Today
We headed down the path that, like I said, takes less than 5 minutes to go down, and as we approached the falls, I realized I had forgotten how big they actually are. They’re seriously huge!
We did what all the typical tourists do and took some pictures at the outlook. Then we decided to make it a little more exciting and jump over the rails to get a better angle for photos. Both my friend and I are interested in photography, so of course we are willing to push the limits a little bit for good photos.
From the outlook, we saw this really cool, tall rock formation down by the river. It looked perfect for climbing. Since we felt a little gypped on the hiking aspect and we had already jumped the rails, we decided to go for a hike down to these rocks.
Of course I wore my Sperry’s, because they are my all time favorite shoes. Unfortunately, they’re not ideal for hiking, but I didn’t care enough for that to stop me.
There was no path on this hike, so it was kind of like a maze. We crossed over a ton of rock piles and fallen trees, and trudged through a bunch of brush. I didn’t even notice all the scratches and bug bites on my legs until we got back to the top, because I was so focused on the hike and getting to these rocks to climb. I wish I could say how long it took us to get down there, but I was too focused to think about that, too.
When we got to the rocks we were headed for, we weren’t actually able to climb up to the top of them, because they were actually taller than we had expected. We climbed up to a ledge that we had a great view of the falls from though. The very top probably about 20 feet from the ledge we were on. We had no climbing gear, and the drop from the very top to the bottom was a good 50 feet. Needless to say, it would have been really dumb for us to try. We enjoyed our little ledge plenty though.
The sun was shining, and we had such a beautiful, unique view around us. We stayed up there climbing around the rocks and taking pictures for quite some time. It wasn’t until it started to rain on us a little that we decided we should probably head back up.
Taking the trek off the trail and doing some exploring gave me a whole new perspective of Mesa Falls. If someone asked me about the most cliché places for BYU-I students to visit, I probably wouldn’t say Mesa Falls anymore. It was quite the adventure.
BYU-Idaho Adventures 