TWIN FALLS - One man says it's an image of the Virgin Mary. Others say it looks like water and moss.

Late Monday night, a man left a message at the Times-News saying he'd seen an image of the Virgin Mary on a rock at Shoshone Falls. He did not return calls made on Tuesday to the number he'd left.

However, along the winding road leading to the falls, a handmade cross rests against the base of a massive basalt slab - on which appears a human-like figure. It's under the only tree along the road.

The image seems to have a halo-like aura surrounding a darker, person-like image. The marking is wet, and moss grows near its center.

Could this bizarre rock stain be a miracle?

"Uh, I just don't see it," said Californian Francisco Garcia, who was visiting the park with his girlfriend, Rosalina Rosa. He stood for more than a minute pondering the image. "Sorry, I just don't see it."

Neither did Peter Rodriguez, another Californian visiting the falls with his wife, Deloma. "Oh, it's one of those," he said. "I can see how someone might think they see Mary, but I don't think it is."

But let not naysayers discourage the faithful, said the Rev. Deacon John Hurley, a Roman Catholic clergyman at the Immaculate Conception Church in Buhl.

"Sightings or sometimes images in sacramentaries are personal in nature," he said. "It isn't a matter of the church saying we believe it or don't believe it. We simply respect the opinion of the individual and certainly don't discourage it. We believe these things can happen."

Perhaps the most famous recent example of an unusual divine image involved a grilled cheese sandwich with the Holy Mother's likeness. The decade-old sandwich sold on eBay two years ago for $28,000.

In 2005, thousands of Chicagoans flocked to a salt stain under a highway overpass that many said was an image of Mary.

It's common for natural occurrences to create unusual images, said Shawn Willsey, an assistant professor of geology at the College of Southern Idaho. Willsey examined the image Tuesday afternoon. He poured a hydrochloric acid on the image and determined it was being caused by caliche - mineral deposits imprinted on the rock by evaporating water.

But even Willsey, who said he is a religious man, is reluctant to discount a miracle.

"A natural phenomenon is sort of what you make of it," he said.

Times-News staff writer Matt Christensen welcomes comments at 735-3243 and at matt.christensen@lee.net.

See a video of the image and hear a geologist's explanation of how it might have occured at www.magicvalley.com.