River of confusion

The view from my campsite

Southern Idaho is rather flat and the rest of the state is mountainous. That’s the picture in my head. Water flows downhill. That’s the science in my head.

So it messes with my mind to have this stretch of the Salmon River flowing northward. That seems uphill.

But the actual geography of Idaho is more complex than my simple mental image. (Most things in life are more complex than I think.) That’s why the Salmon starts out flowing north, then turns east, then north again, then west then north and finally south before converging with the Snake River, which is also flowing the wrong way north on its way to the Columbia River.

Morning mist on the water

Oh well. I’ll just stay camped by the Salmon the next few days, watching it flow in the “wrong” direction until my brain realigns with reality.