Idaho - STR-2021-23

Tuesday, 27 July

Sprinty headed northeast to Idaho, the state where he was adopted by his humans in 2017. Also where he was adopted by his first humans. Anyone who has traveled I-84 in SE Idaho knows there isn't much see or do for a long stretch.

Our original plan had been to golf at a Harvest Host golf course tonight. Scheduling did not work out as today was their biggest golf tournament of the year, and all their spaces were filled. Maybe next time.

Plan B was a state park. Our typical travel planning is to make use of state parks - we find them fairly easy to book, decent value, and peaceful. However, in planning for this segment of adventures, we learned that the State of Idaho recently implemented a daily entrance fee increase for non-residents, and doubled the camping fee for non-residents. So a campsite plus day use fee is $90/night or more. The official reason in a couple of press accounts was to give Idaho residents an advantage in booking state park campgrounds.

A nearby independent campground, pull-through with full-hookups, was $32/night. A no-brainer for Sprinty to stay at the Village Of Trees RV Resort At Travel Stop 216 in Delco, ID. We knew from the reviews that "resort" was a bit of a stretch, but since we just wanted a place for the night, it was more than adequate.

Wednesday, 28 July

With his stay in Delco, ID last night, Sprinty added his 41st state camped in since February 2017 to his list.

As we still wanted to play golf today, we made arrangements with a different Harvest Host golf course in Idaho to play golf today and spend tonight with them. So off to Twin Falls, ID, we went to play golf at Canyon Springs-Twin Falls Golf Club.

The course description says it all.

"It's all about the location and views! You will be able to park in the Snake River Canyon with 500 foot canyon walls and view of the river and world renowned Prine Bridge. Wildlife is abundant in the canyon and with its own little micro climate, the weather is always just that much better."

With that description, we just had to check it out. As we entered Twin Falls, we saw a sign for a scenic overlook at Perrine Memorial Bridge. From the overlook, we could see the golf course at the bottom of the canyon.

The drive down into the canyon was a narrow, switchback road just like the reviews said. However, as someone had made it with a towed car, we knew Sprinty would handle it just fine.

The course was very scenic - much nicer than our golf scores. Kris played better than Darrell to make the turn 4 strokes up. Maybe Darrell was distracted by the scenery?

On the back nine, Darrell finally got serious and started picking up strokes, even tieing it up at one point. In the end, Kris' consistency won the day.

After golf, we took advantage of being in a large city to visit Starbucks for Kris to pay up. We then drove to Shoshone Falls. We got a pleasant surprise as our National Parks Senior Pass got us in for free. As twisty and the roads were to the golf course, the roads to the falls were narrower with a couple of blind corner switchbacks.

The falls were majestic.

Shoshone Falls and the fantastically eroded the basalt cliffs that surround it are relics of the Bonneville Flood, a catastrophic torrent that ripped through the canyon about 15,000 years ago. Now, Shoshone Falls tumbles 212 feet to the canyon floor. The water falls' terraced 1,000 foot span is one of Idaho's most magnificent sites.

For readers of a certain age, you may recall that Snake River Canyon was the site of one of Evel Knieval's most publicized jump attempts. The site of the jump attempt is about halfway between Shoshone Falls and the Perrine Memorial Bridge.

After visiting the falls, we sought a city park with shade and internet to hang out for the afternoon. Our parking spot for the night at the golf course is without shade, and poor cell coverage.

BTW, the Perrine Memorial Bridge is the only bridge in the US that a person can BASE jump off without a permit. We watched the bridge for awhile in case someone was jumping today.

After only a couple of minutes, we saw someone BASE jump off the bridge. We saw at least four people jump from the bridge in about 20 minutes.

Tonight, Sprinty's humans get to live down by the (Snake) river in a van.

Thursday, 29 July

A warm but peaceful night down by the river. Another Rv arrived last night before dark. This morning, the first golfers started arriving at 0630.

We started the day with a bike ride on the Snake River Canyon Rim Trail, which is an out-and-back route totaling 12 miles if you ride all the way to the parking area at Shoshone Falls.

As we drove out of the canyon where the golf course was located, we stopped to get a picture of the golf course in the morning light.

We also got a closeup photo of the waterfall that was in the background of the photo on the golf course yesterday.

After getting Sprinty situated in one of the only parking spots at the west trailhead he would fit in, we rode east. The slight overcast made for dramatic lighting of the Perrine Memorial Bridge.

Along the trail, there were a number of interpretive signs about the area. One sign was devoted to the Bonneville Flood. About 17,400 years ago, a large freshwater lake called Lake Bonneville expanded during the cool, moist climate of the last Ice Age. Eventually the rising lakes spilled across one of its natural divides at a point called Red Rock Pass in southeastern Idaho. The flowing water rapidly eroded the loose sand and gravel of the past, lowering the lakes elevation by 400 feet as it unleashed a massive flood that spilled northward into the Snake River Basin. The Snake River Canyon existed prior to the Bonneville flood, but was significantly smaller. The erosive of power of the flood cut the canyon forming a iconic waterfalls and cataracts such as Shoshone Falls and Pillar Falls.

A companion sign was titled "The View Feom Here: What A Geologist Sees". A useful explanation of the rock formations if you happen to be traveling without your personal geologists, like Tom and Heidi.

As we continued east towards Shoshone Falls, we passed the location of Evel Knievel's attempt to jump Snake River Canyon.

Much of the ramp still remains.

Getting to visit this location after visiting the Evel Knievel museum in Topeka, KS was really cool.

We decided to turn around before descending to Shoshone Falls as we had visited there yesterday and did not relish almost a mile of hard braking down the hill, only to have to pedal back up the hill.

We stopped for another view of Shoshone Falls. The Rim Trail is well done with various overlooks, benches and interpretive signs.

As we approached Perrine Memorial Bridge, we saw some people walking out on the bridge. As we had seen some people packing chutes when we rode by earlier, we thought they might be BASE jumpers. So we stopped at one of the overlooks to watch. We saw three jumps.

Link to a short video clip of one of the BASE jumpers:

We enjoyed a mostly cloudy morning which made for cooler temperatures for riding. As we were putting the bikes away, the sun started breaking out. A good time to finish our bike ride.

We left Twin Falls headed north to Craters of the Moon National Monument near Arco, ID.

Craters of the Moon NM is 750,000 acres of lava that began about 15,000 years ago, with the most recent eruption only 2,000 years ago.

A stop at the visitor center provided a wealth of information on why the Snake River Plain exhibits so much volcanic evidence. The Ranger was very helpful in providing us info to plan our visit, and we got our permit to go into the lava caves.

Our first stop inside the Monument was the Inferno Cone, one of many cinder cones.

A short 0.2 mile hike up to the top (elevation gain about 150 feet) provided a great view of the region.

Next up was the Spatter Cones. Another short hike on a paved trail to get a close up view.

Probably the most intriguing part of our visit was the lava tubes and caves. Maybe because we visited Sunset Crater in Arizona only a couple of weeks ago, vast lava fields weren't as new to us. Darrell explored Dewdrop Cave, which was not a very big "cave".

We then went to the Indian Tunnel, an 800-foot lava tube with areas where the roof had caved in which provided light. Indian Tunnel is the only cave that did not require a flashlight - but having brought one was helpful as the floor was rocky and being able to see the floor in some of the darker areas enabled better footing. Navigating the tunnel required some scrambling over and around lava rocks.

After the Indian Tunnel, we decided to pass on the other two caves.

We left the monument and headed east for Idaho Falls. Upon arrival, we found a place downtown to park Sprinty (a convenient Residence Inn parking lot down by the river) and rode the Idaho Falls Greenbelt Trail which went along both sides of the Snake River.

A nice ride, which made for a total of 20 miles of bike riding today.

After the ride, we got some pictures of the falls in the river.

Sprinty's home for the night is the Snake River RV Park And Campground in Idaho Falls, ID. Close to downtown, it is ideal for exploring the city.

And this concludes Sprinty's brief visit to Idaho as he continues east in the morning to Wyoming. Deets in the next blog post.