Why the Malad Gorge is Important to me

In 1984, my parents moved our family from Basalt, a small eastern Idaho town of about 500 people, to Boise. I was 11. There wasn’t enough room in the station wagon — or so my parents claimed — so I rode with my Grandpa Harold in the U-haul. He was 69, silent, and drove exactly 55 MPH the entire 260 miles while every car on the road passed us. I remember needing to use the bathroom for most of the trip. We didn’t have time to stop.

That’s when I saw it for the first time. Malad Gorge, a massive canyon that erupts from the desert floor without warning. You’re on top of it and over it in a split second. Even at 11, It excited me. It was something I needed to see again.

Ten years later I was studying fine art photography at Utah State. I stopped to photograph the Gorge on drives home to Boise from Logan, Utah. I explored the entire area. I even clambered down the back side of the bridge and set up my camera on a rock ledge — something I’d never attempt today. 

I kept visiting the Gorge. In 1996 I took my new bride Samantha and two of her sisters to see it. In 1998 I returned with my 4×5 view camera, my dad standing right beside me as I worked. That day he told me that even though his kids were all growing up, he loved them just as much as he did when they were babies. It has stayed with me ever since.

I returned most recently on a cold, windy spring evening. The bridge swayed in erratic wind gusts. I had to time my long exposures between them. I shot at sunset and the following morning at sunrise. This sunset image was the most compelling — the fading light was just finishing its work on the east wall of the canyon. 

I’ve now had a relationship with Malad Gorge for four decades. It’s an anchoring location in my portfolio My Private Idaho — a project built around the idea that certain places become yours regardless of how well-known they are. Everyone has places like this. 

I’m certain I’m not finished with the Gorge yet. Maybe someday I’ll be able to drive my own grandson over it slowly and silently while he needs to use the bathroom.