Sunday started out with a devotional service under the
pavilion. They were led by our tailenders, Jim & Mary.
Then we all loaded into cars and began our caravan to our
three stops on this portion of our tour. Our first stop was the Twin Falls Hydroelectric Project Park. Lake Bonneville, the bigger ancestor of Salt Lake, flooded
this area about 15,000 years ago. Twin Falls, so named because of the pair of
cataracts that once poured over these rocks, was formed by this flood.
The Twin Falls Power Plant was built by Idaho Power Co. in
1935. The original unit has a capacity of about nine megawatts.The cascading water of Twin Falls doesn’t enthrall
spectators in quite the same way as Shoshone Falls. But its hydroelectric plant
has a greater capacity to generate power to Magic Valley homes than its famous
counterpart. Two turbines combined can generate 54 megawatts of power. That’s
more than four times what Shoshone Falls can produce, simply because Twin
Falls’ equipment is newer.
In 1995, the company added another turbine and plant that
could generate 45 megawatts and it’s because of those plants that you can no
longer see the “twin” of Twin Falls. The waterfall once had a second fall alongside it and a
third in extra high water years. But Idaho Power constructed a dam along the
top, and the company essentially pipes that second waterfall through steel and
concrete to either of two turbines.
The Snake River Canyon is beautiful below the falls, too.
We moved onto the Shoshone Falls, which is located at the
edge of Twin Falls. Shoshone Falls is a natural beauty on the Snake River. At
212 feet, the falls are higher than Niagara Falls. Sometimes called the
"Niagara of the West," Shoshone Falls is 45 feet higher than Niagara
Falls—and flows over a rim nearly 1,000 feet wide.
 |
| Notice the small rainbow in the left corner of the picture |
It was formed by catastrophic outburst flooding during the ice
age about 15,000 years ago, Shoshone Falls marks the historical upper limit of
fish migration in the Snake River, and was an important fishing and trading
place for Native Americans.The falls were documented by Europeans as early as the
1840s; despite the isolated location, it became a tourist attraction starting
in the 1860s. At the beginning of the 20th century, part of the Snake River was
diverted for irrigation of the Magic Valley. Irrigation and hydroelectric power
stations built on the falls were major contributors to the early economic
development of southern Idaho.
The water flowing over the falls was impressive in August,
but Shoshone Falls is best viewed in the spring, as diversion of the Snake
River often can significantly diminishes water levels in the late summer and
fall. The Shoshone Falls are named for the Lemhi Shoshone or
Agaidika, "Salmon eaters" people, who depended on the Snake River's
immense salmon runs as their primary food source, though they also supplemented
their diet with various roots, nuts and large game such as buffalo. Because the
falls are the upstream limit of salmon migration in the Snake River, they
served as a central food source and trading center for the native peoples, who
fished with willow spears tipped with elk horn. The Bannock people also
traveled to Shoshone Falls each summer to gather salmon.
Although the Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered the
Shoshone Indians in 1805-06 they did not pass through the Shoshone Falls area.
The 1811 Wilson Price Hunt Expedition, whose goal was to scout routes for the
growing fur trade, traveled down the Snake River as far as Caldron Linn, a wild
rapids located near present-day Murtaugh, Idaho. There, where the river drops into the precipitous Snake
River Canyon, a canoe capsized and one of Hunt’s Canadian boatmen was drowned.
Although the party explored the canyon for several miles downstream, Hunt’s
journal does not mention any waterfalls as large as Shoshone Falls. Hunt then split
the group to make foraging easier and they basically walked out of Idaho. The
routes they pioneered would become part of the Oregon Trail, which would later
bring many emigrants from the eastern United States to the Shoshone Falls area.
Pioneer traffic along the Oregon Trail through Idaho
increased steadily from 1843 on. In 1847, some 4,000 emigrants passed through
on their way to Oregon. One of the parties that year included Roman Catholic
Bishop Augustin-Magloire Blanchet, who had been appointed to lead the new
Diocese of Walla Walla. Traveling along the north side of the river, the group
made a detour, perhaps guided by a former trapper who was familiar with the
area. Blanchett then made the first known written record of seeing Shoshone
Falls. Being from Quebec, Canada, he called the feature “Canadian Falls.”
That designation did not last very long, however. In August,
1849, a column of U. S. Army “Mounted Rifles” marched by, headed for Oregon.
They took a route somewhat closer to the canyon and could actually hear the
thunder of the falls. A local Indian had told their guide about the feature, so
the guide led Lieutenant Andrew Lindsay and George Gibbs, a civilian writer and
artist, to see them. Gibbs drew the first known image of the falls, and the
pair selected “Shoshone Falls” as a more appropriate name. Timothy H. O'Sullivan a member of the 1868 expedition, and
became the first national photographer to picture the falls. O'Sullivan also
returned to the area in 1874, again to photograph Shoshone Falls.
Our next stop was the Perrine Bridge, which spans the
majestic Snake River Canyon on the northern edge of Twin Falls. The bridge is
1,500 feet long and 486 feet above the Snake River below. The four-lane bridge
has pedestrian walkways with views of the river, sheer cliffs, the Blue Lakes,
waterfalls, a park and two golf courses. BASE jumpers can enjoy the Perrine
Bridge year-round as the launching point for parachuting to the canyon floor
below.
Originally named the Twin Falls-Jerome Intercounty Bridge, a
steel cantilever bridge was opened to traffic in September 1927, at the time,
it was the highest bridge in the world. The privately financed $750,000
structure was originally a toll bridge; the tolls were eliminated in April 1940
after the bridge was purchased by the state of Idaho for $482,000. By the early 1970s, the original bridge was outdated and
unable to handle heavy loads and required replacement. Construction of the current
bridge began in May 1973 and was completed in July 1976 at a cost of $10.56
million.
The Perrine Bridge is a popular BASE jumping site known all
over the world; it may be the only man-made structure in the United States
where BASE jumping is allowed year-round without a permit. Jumpers often use the nearby visitor center as
a home base before and after parachuting from the bridge.
The first documented and video-recorded/photographed jumps
from the bridge were in 1987, by three residents of Twin Falls (former U.S.
Army paratroopers) who static line jumped the bridge using military surplus
MC1-1B parachutes. It was done after a test drop of a 55-gallon drum in a T-10
parachute harness and canopy was used. Multiple successful jumps were conducted
without incident or injury.
In the early 1990s, bungee jumping and parachuting off the
bridge gained popularity, but was still against the law; by the end of the
decade, BASE jumping was legal. In July 2006, Dan Schilling jumped off the
bridge 201 times in 21 hours to raise money for charity; Schilling was hoisted
to the top of the bridge by a crane after every jump.
We met a group of base jumpers, but it was too windy and
they were not going to jump.
Some of the group went to Johnny Carino’s, but our car
decided to go and grab some Papa Murphy’s Take-n-Bake pizza. Neither couple has
been to one before, so we wanted to give it a try. Papa Murphy's is a business
based in Vancouver, Washington. It began in 1995 as the merger of two
take-and-bake pizza companies: Papa Aldo's Pizza (founded in 1981) and Murphy's
Pizza (founded in 1984). The company and its franchisees operate more than
1,300 outlets in the United States and Canada. Papa Murphy's is the
fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States. The chain of take and bake
pizzerias traces its history back to 1981, when the Papa Aldo's Pizza chain was
founded in Hillsboro, Oregon. Three years later, Murphy's Pizza chain began
operating in Petaluma, California. Both chains were later acquired and
consolidated into Papa Murphy's.
We took our pizzas back to our rigs and cooked them in the
convection ovens. They were good! After our late lunch, it was time to get the
laundry caught up. It is a necessary evil.
We enjoyed a Yankee Entrée Supper of ham. A Yankee Supper is
when Yankee RV Tours provides the entrée and we each bring the sides we would
have had anyway. It is easier for caravaneers than a pot luck. But, most people
make a side to share with others! And usually the desserts are stupendous too!
We were treated to some entertainment by a fellow
caravaneer, Fred. He played his 12-string guitar and sang for us!
The sun had a haze around it, as we headed home form the clubhouse. It was
another great day on our Yankee RV Caravan!
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