Great day in Twin Falls

July 12 – It’s Sunday, special breakfast day!  Today was cinnamon and raisin scones, bacon, cantaloupe and an egg for Bill.  It was a nice day out, not hot or humid at all.

Snake River Overlook

We headed out to Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument.  The google map sent us to the actual fossil beds and not the visitor center but we called them and were only a few miles off.  They showed a nice movie and we learned that most of their fossils are in places like the Smithsonian and other major museums.  They are known for the Hagerman Horse as complete skeletons were found.  The fossils here are relatively young, as in no dinosaurs.  The Hagerman fossils are about 3 million years old and were uncovered 15,000 years ago by a flood that carved out the cliff and began exposing the fossils.  It’s all very interesting.

After the visitor center we drove out to one of the fossil bed overlooks where the Snake River flows.  The view is great!  It’s also a couple hundred yards from the wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail.  You’d have to do some walking and hiking to get to the remaining ruts and we weren’t really interested as we’d seen the ruts in other places.

The Horseman

The Sheepherder

On our way out of Hagerman, the town, we spotted a set of bronze statues so we turned around to check it out.  It was dedicated to the sheepherders who came to the area and settled.  There was also a small covered wagon that made a nice photo op!

Along the Snake River

We stopped along the road out along the Snake River for a view of the river and valley below.  The river “snakes” along for miles and miles and is believed to have originally connected to a river much further north but due to the volcanic activity it was split sorta.

Devil's Washbowl

Thousand Springs State Park is actually 5 park units in what is known at the magic Valley.  We stopped at the Malad Gorge Unit and walked out to see Devils Washbowl.  The water just rushes down the entire gorge, not just from the falls.  Along the far side of the gorge is a walkway to another lookout point where you get an entirely different perspective of the Devils Washbowl. 

Waterfall further down the
gorge

It was way past lunch time and there hadn’t been any places to stop for lunch.  Bill asked the gate attendant at Malad and he recommended a place up the interstate which was the direction we were headed so that worked out well.  It’s a county cooking place and we forgot it was Sunday and it was pretty full but we were seated right away.  The service was a bit slow but the food was good.  Bill got a 3 piece chicken meal and it was 3 bone in chicken breasts.  No way a normal person could eat all that with the sides!  He brought it home and we ended up having it for dinner.

Next stop was Twin Falls!  We stopped at the visitor center that

Perrine Bridge

overlooks the Snake River.  The Perrine Bridge crosses it and is well known for hang gliders jumping off the bridge and

Snake River with golf
courses on both sides

gliding over the river.  Too bad it was rainy out as they weren’t gliding today.  There are 2 golf courses in the valley along the river, one private and one public.  We could see kayakers and boaters enjoying a Sunday afternoon on the river.

Mr. Perrine

There is a statue beside the viewing area at the visitor center honoring IB Perrine, who was instrumental in getting the river dammed up and a power plant in Twin Falls. 

Shoshone Falls AKA
Niagra Falls of the West

We had directions to Shoshone Falls, which is within a city park.  We did the view from the top first and then did the very winding road to the bottom.  On the way down, within ½ mile we saw a groundhog, a baby raccoon and a baby deer.  I was impressed!  Then we parked and viewed the falls and were REALLY impressed!  All of the landscape around the falls was beautiful.  The dam is there and its building created Dierkes Lake above the falls.  It’s quite the

Still waters of Snake River

summer hot spot!  It was getting hot out by then and that was pretty much our last stop for the day. Well, I did spot a Starbucks in Twin Falls so we stopped on the way out and each got a frappuccino.  Yum!

When we got home we were still full from lunch so I didn’t give dinner a thought and Bill turned on the TV and was watching a movie and then I got sucked in.  Well, it was a two parter and luckily part 2 came on right after.  I would have been mad to not get to see the second half and know how the story ended. 

Bill finally got out his leftover chicken and some veggies I think.  When the movie ended we went out and put the bike rack on the car and the bikes back on.  Then we walked a little around the park.  I had the last of the chicken and we settled in for the night.