I pulled the camper out of storage, de-winterized it and we loaded up. Camping at this time of year eliminates the crowds so we had our choice of sites. Most of the Idaho state parks offer water and electric hookups and some have sewer. To date we have only dry camped so plugging in was an easy learning curve. We had a nice dinner and stayed nice and toasty with a little 120v ceramic heater. The next day we decided to hike up the dune that is 1300’ above the valley floor.
It was quite a hump up to the ridge top. We angled up and were amazed at the scattered wildflowers that were growing in nothing more than a giant sandbox. Once we made the ridge the map showed an area labeled the “Vortex” over the backside. Appropriately named the backside slope spiraled down the entire 1300’ ft in a giant swirl.
Once we made the summit there was nothing else to do but head down. We went down this knife-edge ridge that was really steep off both sides. I took a step down maybe 2 feet and a sand slide would start and grow and run all the way to the bottom.
Neither of us had ever, ever had that much sand in our boots. Hell, I didn’t think it was possible to get that much sand in a boot. Anyway de-sanded, showered and fed we were sitting outside enjoying a nice evening. There was a bunch of owls nesting in the park trees and one of them in the tree right over us got pissed off at Jennifer and attacked. Suddenly Jennifer jumps up and screams, “OWL…OWL”, as this owl swoops about 6” from her shoulder.
Having survived the owl attack we loaded up the next morning and parked the camper in the visitor center parking lot and took a back-track side trip to Bruneau gorge. We drove to the town of Bruneau and headed southeast on Hot Springs road and followed the signs to the overlook. It was 28 miles on a good gravel road that goes through Saylor Creek Air Force bombing range. The white tahoe must have looked like a NATO rig because nobody shot at us.
The overlook into Bruneau gorge is awesome. The river cut an 800’ deep gorge down through the rolling sagebrush hills. The river is raft-able in the spring and would be an adventure but once you put in there would be no getting out until 3 or 4 miles from town. The Bruneau gorge is definitely worth a side trip.
We drove back to the visitors center and hooked up the camper and headed east on I-84 toward Twin Falls. About 5 miles east of Bliss the Malad River crosses under the interstate. We took the exit (147 I think) and drove into Malad Gorge State Park. Its a nice day use park with hiking trails along and down into the gorge. There is a paved path to a narrow steel foot bridge that crosses Malad River. Upstream the river plunges over a falls into what’s called the “washing machine”. The view downstream is really wild because the river is divided in half long ways, one half is brown from runoff and the other half is clear turquoise from the fresh water springs that emerge all along the east wall of the gorge.
Heading east we turned off onto the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway that runs along the Snake River. This is where every trout you see in a grocery store or order in a restaurant comes from. The springs produce perfectly pure water at just the right temp for trout farming. We camped at a commercial camp ground that night that had a huge, at least 2x Olympic sized indoor hot springs pool. It was a little different camping at a commercial place right off the highway but it worked for us. The next day we took a day trip to Balanced Rock.
The formation is really amazing. Nature’s erosive forces carved a forty ton, forty eight foot tall rock sitting on a 17” x 3 foot pedestal. We hiked up past the rock and across the valley there was a big grey cloud moving along the ground. Turns out it was a herd of several thousand sheep kind of flowing along and over the hills.
Now most of you probably didn’t know that Jennifer is an avid amateur paleontologist. She’s always looking for ancient bones and stuff. Anyway she found this petrified laughing dragon way up above Balanced Rock. Now I didn’t know there were dragons wandering around Idaho a million years ago much less laughing ones.
On the way back toward Twin Falls we crossed Salmon Falls Creek and there was a turn off to this small county park that was up the canyon just a little way. It was a neat little place with covered picnic tables, fire rings and really nice turf. I don’t know if camping is allowed, it kind of looked like there had been campers. We had a picnic at the upstream end of the park where the canyon walls go up a couple of hundred feet.
The next day after a swim in the huge warm pool we went looking for 1000 Springs State Park listed on our map. We drove around most of the day and found some signs leading to stuff that was listed in the state park brochure. We finally figured out that this park is made up of a bunch of different units, areas and features. We had this epiphany when we were studying a sign that was in the corner of a farmer’s field pointing to the box canyon trail about a mile across the field. Later we did find Niagara Springs which is part of the park where a river literally emerges out of the canyon wall.
Shoshone Falls, Twin Falls, ID
If you are ever in the Twin Falls area you have to go see Shoshone Falls. There is an extremely nice county park with a visitor center and multiple walkways and view points to see this amazing natural gem. Shoshone Falls is higher than Niagara Falls and its 212 ft drop marks the end of pacific salmon migrations up the Snake River. The 900 ft wide horseshoe shaped falls is most impressive in the spring especially after a winter of heavy snows. That much falling water makes a lot of noise, kind of a mix of crashing and roaring that reverberates up and down the canyon. A semitransparent mist cloud swirls and eddies above the cascade with single, double and even triple rainbows arching over it all. Definitely an amazing must see.
It was a great first of the season trip. The weather was good for early spring and all the equipment worked well. Finding some really cool nooks and crannies in an area we normally just gun through at 75mph was really fun. We will probably be back next spring and look for those little secrets we didn’t find this trip.
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