Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

30th August 2015

When we arrived here in Twin Falls, Idaho, yesterday, we kind of decided to chill out, get some supplies and start the local adventures today.

First off, we went for ‘Balanced Rock’. It’s a State Park. It also has a picnic and camping area which, if it had red rocks, and was well marketed, and was in Utah, would have tourists flocking to it.
The Balanced Rock is a mile or so from the picnic place. It’s amazing. It’s tons of stone held up by this little piece of connecting stone. You’d think a slight wind gust would blow it over.

Then we went to look for the Hagerman Fossil Beds (National Monument). Er hem, this became a trail of discovery (not). The Garmin GPS was happy to find the ‘place’ for us, but insisted that we spent an hour traversing dirt roads in the middle of nowhere to get to it (note: ‘it’ is not an ‘it’, it’s a wide area of trails with no particular focus). So we ditched that and headed to the town of Hagerman, and the Fossil Visitor Center. Which was closed.

OK, 4 miles back down the road we saw the sign for the Fossil NM and the Oregon Trail, so we headed back there. Now we’re getting somewhere!

What we find is the Oregon trail, with, apparently, the original cart tracks in the hillside. A Wow! moment. The fossils, fuggetaboudit…

Then, later, we do Shoshone Falls, amazing; I.B. Perrine Bridge, what a setting; Dierkes Lake and Centennial Park, OK-ish.
Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls

Snake River downstream of the Falls

I.B.Perrine Bridge

The ‘Twins’ of Twin Falls
But then we headed down a dirt road (no outlet), in the Snake River valley, to discover amazing waterfalls just sprouting out of the cliffs. Outstanding.