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Published: July 14th 2021
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First view of Shoshone FallsWe woke up pretty early at around 5:30, and I finally forced myself out of bed by 6. Meanwhile, my sweet wife had gone to the nearby gas station to get us some fresh coffee. When I'd gone to bed, I felt fairly comfortable, except for my My Pillow travel pillow which was a bit too small for use in the bed. Sometime a bit later, I got so cold that I had major chills and shakes, waking up my wife. I put on extra clothes and my wife shared her little blanket, and I finally settled down enough to fall back to sleep. Tomorrow we will buy another pillow for me, and I'll dress a bit warmer after this.
After getting dressed and finishing off our coffees, we were on our way to our first stop, Shoshone Falls, just a little past 7am. I forgot to mention that our Hyundai Elantra rental car had a nice feature where you plug in your phone and display Google Map directions, and it will display the map and play the audio while you drive! Nice feature. It turned that there was a plus to getting to the Shoshone Falls Park so early...
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Looking down Snake River from the falls they were open, but not manning the entrance booth. We figured we'd pay the $5 entry fee on the way out, but when I mentioned it to a park range we met, he told us "no problem.. one of the benefits of being early". The falls were awesome! They are hard to describe, so check out the photos. There are a couple of good overlooks, plus a short path along one side with some good viewpoints too. The ranger we talked to told us that we were also lucky that they had already "turned on the water". Apparently, most of the waterfalls are caused by opening the dam, which where closed at night or some such. We took a lot of photos, and met our first native creature, the rockchuck. He looks a lot like, and is related to, the woodchuck. They are often hunted by farmers to keep them from eating their crops. The one we saw was almost posing for us at the top of a rocky outcrop. Check out the photo and inset.
We left the park and headed for our next stop, Perrine Bridge. The directions the phone provided either weren't good, or I didn't
follow them correctly. We ended up going back across the bridge to turn around and come back. We found a little turn off parking area and after a short walk down a nice viewpoint from below the bridge. This bridge is quite cool, spanning the Snake River Canyon way below. After a number of photos, we continued back across the bridge and found the Visitor's Center we had been looking for. It was a nice enough visitor's center with lots of information, but the overlooks for the bridge weren't as nice as the ones we'd found back on the other side. After a look around and a couple of photos, we got back on the road, to visit the City of Rocks National Reserve.
The City of Rocks National Reserve is a pretty long haul from where we were, but most of it was on the interstate, and the part that wasn't was pretty neat open country with a few small quaint towns along the way. We stopped first at the Ranger Station and were treated by the ranger with a nice video, and then a indepth discussion of what sights we might like to see. The Reserve is
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JC at the Shoshone Falls Overlook a bit unusual in that it contains a number of sections of private property where all you can do is drive past. The City of Rocks is a very large collection of some very large rocks, several of which are considered a challenge to experienced rock climbers. Many of them have names like Elephant Rock, Treasure Rock, The Twin Sisters, etc. We stopped numerous times in campsite turnoffs to check out the views, especially Window Arch. There were a pretty good number of campers, both with tents and small RVs. Although they don't have electricity or running water, a couple do have restrooms, such as The Twin Sisters, and only cost $14 a night, I believe. After viewing most of the rocks and sights along the main road, we headed back to see The Twin Sisters rocks, which were a bit more isolated and good distance from the others. When we arrived, we discovered the Group Camp had a major event going on, with dozens of your female campers and their adult ... chaperones. They had a large pavilion tent set up, serving food, and I could see a good number of large tents spread out above. One of trailers
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Photo of a rockchuck had a "Boy Scouts of America" logo and title on it, but I didn't see a single male anywhere.
The Ranger we spoke to at the station mention that the Tracy Genera Store we had passed just before the station, was the oldest continuous store in Idaho, founded in 1892 if I remember correctly. He told us that they not only had a good variety of snacks and stuff, but that they served a very good lunch at the school across the street. Apparently, the school had closed down, with all the kids going to another one in a nearby town, and the store was using the kitchen and lunch room to serve folks. It sounded tempting, and the drive to our next destination was quite a ways away, so after checking out the store, we went across the street to eat lunch. Manoli wanted the special of the day, Taco Salad, but they out, so she had a cheeseburger the same as I. It was very good, and quite filling. They gave you a bag of chips with each burger or sandwich.
After our leisurely lunch, we got back on the road, heading to Shoshone Ice Caves.
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The Perrine Bridge I had checked it out during lunch and found out you needed to make reservations for the tour. Luckily, about the time we planned on getting there, 4pm, their we tickets available, so I quickly reserved two tickets online. After driving a short while, Manoli took over so I could take a quick nap. We arrived at the caves about 10 minutes before 4, grabbed our sweaters and joined the tour. The sweaters were pretty much a necessity, since the caves were at or near freezing inside! After a short walk across some volcanic rocks, with a couple of stops for the guide to explain some history, we entered the cave. The entire route into the cave was on a wooden walkway suspended from the ceiling. Our guide explained a lot about how the cave was formed and such, along with other interesting facts, then he walked back to the end the line to lead us back out the same way. Although the tour was short both in distance and time (about 45 minutes altogether), it was well worth the $10 each we paid ($2 senior discount) and a once in a lifetime experience.
After the tour, we headed
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Looking at Snake River from below Perrine Bridge back to the KOA, stopping at a nearby WalMart to get a pillow for me, and something to eat for dinner. I had some sushi (California roll since the only other variety was listed as spicy) and a pudding. We got back to the KOA, had dinner, and took a nice hot shower being heading off to bed. Tomorrow we leave this KOA and head to Livingston KOA in Montana where we plan on spending a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park. We will make a short visit to the Craters of the Moon National Monument along the way.
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