9/15/2020
Today I was planning on just driving until I got to The Grand Tetons, but I found some beautiful distractions along the way. I took off from Boise in the morning and while I was driving I crossed this narrow and deep gorge. I decided to turn off and take a better look at it. It was $5 to get into the state park and it ended up being worth every dollar. There were five points of interest along the road. The first spot was the actual gorge that you can see from the highway. The walls were straight down and there was a huge waterfall directly below the interstate. There was a walking bridge that crossed to get some good pics.
The next spot was another waterfall that dropped from the top of the wall that you could get right up to.
The third stop was a view of the dam and info on the fish steps. The fish steps were built so the fish could get around the dam to their spawning area. There are a bunch of descending pools that the fish jump down to get to the bottom.
The fourth stop was the basalt cracks. This was a section of the cliffside that was breaking away. The cracks were 20 or 30 feet deep.
The final spot was another small waterfall.
Overall I was there for a little over an hour. I hopped back on the interstate until I found another cool sounding place, Shoshone Falls. Back of interstate and found out its on the far side of Twin Falls, ID. You have to cross the Snake River to get to the town and the Falls are off to the East. I drove to the park, parked, and took off on a hike and to get some beautiful pics of the falls.
After checking out the falls I found a trailhead that led up to the spot where Evel Knievel. The sign lied to me. It looked like it was only a mile and a half out there. It ended up being almost twice that. At least it was all paved. It was pretty warm though. I was hoping it was going to be more exciting, but meh. All that was left was a hill with some concrete on it. While I was there I watched the video of the jump. I found out his parachute opened early and he didn’t make it. Here’s a link to the video for anyone interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pghl2U0wVIw
I hiked all the way back, stopped in town for lunch, and was going to stop at the visitors center, but missed the turn. If you miss the turn you have to cross the bridge turn around on the other side and come back. Decided to skip that and keep on driving. I stopped in Victor, ID for the night so I can spend all day in the Tetons and Yellowstone tomorrow.