After two great weeks in Utah, we packed up our car and headed to Whitefish, Montana. The drive is about 9 hours, but the Watkins don’t ever do things the easy way. We decided to make a detour to Twin Falls, Idaho to see the Shoshone Falls. The Shoshone Falls are on the snake river. 
The falls were formed by the flooding of Lake Bonneville about 14,000 years ago. It was an important fishing and trading place for Native Americans. Lucas and Henry have been studying Native American tribes and westward expansion. Henry did a presentation for his history class about the Shoshone tribes. It is interesting to be in this part of the United States while they are studying this time in history.
This time of year the falls are not as big because of irrigation, but it was still impressive. The canyon and Snake River are stunning backdrops for the city of Twin Falls. We learned that Evel Knievel tried to leap the mile-wide chasm of the Snake River Canyon on his specially engineered rocket motorcycle in 1974. It was not a successful jump because his parachute malfunctioned and opened on take-off, but there is a monument memorializing his attempt. When we arrived in Twin Falls there were base jumpers preparing their parachutes to jump off the bridge. We were not able to stay to see them because it was going to be another hour before they jumped.
Shoshone Falls Park is a great place to spend a day. It was only $5 per car to enter the park. There is a platform to view the falls. There is also an interesting exhibit about the history of the falls and Twin Falls. Entrance to the park also gives you access to Dierks Lake Park. The kids got to play on the playground. We saw people fishing in the lake. We also saw a lot of beavers. Seeing wildlife never gets old for us city-folk.
We did not spend as much time in Twin Falls and we would have liked to because we had a long trip ahead of us. We almost got stuck in Idaho Falls. Not really, but the highway was closed due to wind and the detour signs were not great. We stopped at a gas station to ask how to get out of the town and we got heckled for wearing masks. Idaho City did not make a great impression on us. We finally got out of Idaho City and got to drive through the wind storm. The dust kicked up by the wind made visibility tough.
Montana had its own challenges. We took the scenic route and almost ran out of gas. One thing we have learned while traveling in more remote areas is to fill up on gas when you can. We also had to contend with snow and deer. So many deer. The deer liked to pop out onto the road without warning. We saw hundreds of them on our way up to Whitefish.
It was a 15 hour travel day when you include our stops and detours. We left Utah at 5:45 a.m. and made it to our house in Whitefish at 9 p.m.
That’s a hearty day!
Those of a certain age vividly remember Evel Kneivel attempting to jump the Snake River Canyon!
We watched it on YouTube. It is incredible to think about him doing that when you look at the Canyon.