Southern Idaho Travels ~ Hagerman Fossil Beds NM; Balanced Rock; Malard Gorge; Ritter Island; Shoshone Falls

It's been hot, hot hot - in the high 90's to 100; low humidity, and the air conditioner is not keeping the trailer cool. It's about the same temperature inside and it is outside.  So, we have been traveling around the area to see the sights. Our first trip was to Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. There was nothing to see at the actual monument as they are just excavating the fossils. There were fossils at the Visitor Center that I took pictures of.

Mastadon head & tusks

Mammut Americanum foot

Hagerman Horse

They have found about 20 complete skeletons of the Hagerman Horse at the fossil beds. The horse probably is more closely related to Grevy's zebra than the horse. Scientists conclude this because its skull looks very much like a zebra's. Scientists also speculate the Hagerman Horse may have had stripes.

After leaving the fossil beds we headed for Balanced Rock Park in Castleford. This giant wind-carved rock is 48 feet high and weighs 40 tons, and it stands preciously on a tiny rock pedestal. The rock formations all around are amazing.

The next day we went to Malad Gorge State Park and Ritter Island. Malad Gorge is a steep 250-foot canyon with the Snake River at the bottom. Our first stop was Devil's Washbowl. Malad Canyon and the washbowl were created by a combination of volcanic activity and erosion. 

Over a period of time, periodic lava flows changed the landscape repeatedly. Following the volcanic episodes, alpine glacial snow melt from the north began flowing toward the Snake River. As the water reached this area, it began to widen weak joints in the basalt, eroding them to greater widths and depths. This widening began at the edge of the Snake River canyon as a raging waterfall. Over time, the waters retreated 2.5 miles to the present waterfall at Devil's Washbowl.

The 60-foot waterfall at the Devil's Washbowl is an active example of a retreating cataract. To the west and southeast of the Malad Canyon, similar examples of this canyon-forming erosion can be seen by walking Woody's Cove Overlook.

Woody's Valley and Hagerman Valley was created by the same forces that created the Malad Gorge. In the past, waters from alpine glacial melt flowed violently over this area and began to wash out this cove. There was once a waterfall here similar to the Devil's Washbowl but the waters were diverted over time and left the cove as it appears today.

After leaving Malad Gorge we drove down to see Ritter Island, which is another part of the Thousand Springs State Park system. Many of these parks have waterfalls and the Idaho Power Company have their hydroelectric power plants associated with them. I could not find Ritter Island with our GPS but did find it on my phone's GPS, and plugged it in. The back streets of southern Idaho took us past the many fields of corn and pastures of cows and feed lots, E 3800 N, N 1500 E, E 3400 N - crazy names. Glad we had GPS otherwise we would have gotten quite lost.

Ritter Island allows visitors to step back in time to an era when Minnie Miller ran her then state of the art dairy with her prize-winning Guernsey cows. We walked through Mrs. Miller's dairy barn and down the path to the favorite spot of Minnie Miller's daughter to see the falls coming out of the mountains. The girls had a nice swim in the 52 degree crystal clear spring water.

Minnie Miller Falls

The day before we left we headed to Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls and then to Walmart for our weekly shopping. Shoshone Falls cascades 212 feet down from the rim of the canyon. The falls are actually slightly taller than Niagara Falls.

As we were leaving Shoshone Falls and heading back to the campground, we were driving over the famous Perrine Bridge where parachutists jump from into the gorge of Snake River.  There were a few people standing on the bridge with packs on their backs and Jim yelled "They're going to jump - pull over!" Luckily, the city anticipates that people will want to pull over and watch the parachutists jump because there is a small parking lot and a path with observatory next to the bridge for people to watch. After a few tries, I did get most of a jump from one of the people.

From what we understand, people who take the Base Jumping Academy have to jump from several places, including the bridge over the Snake River. It's quite dangerous, and we were lucky to have witnessed them jumping. BASE jumpers leap off Buildings, Antennas, Spans and Earth, hence the name, BASE, with the latter two entries referring to bridges and cliffs.  This is risky business, much more so than skydiving from airplanes, that in and of itself is generally considered risky. People sign up and pay for the opportunity to learn and jump off these various places.  Snake River BASE Academy students are welcome to check out BASE gear to jump the Perrine Bridge after course completion. Alumni frequently come back and borrow rigs years later.