Twin Falls, Idaho

Visited October 2 - 6, 2021

By Marty

We drove the Sawtooth Scenic Byway from Stanley to Twin Falls, Idaho where we spent four nights. The photo below is taken from Galena Summit with the Sawtooth Range in the distance to the northwest.

In Twin Falls we stumbled upon an outdoor Oktoberfest downtown with live music and the usual revelry. This cute cow mural (with some Oktoberfest banners at the bottom) is all that we have to show you from that event. 

This is the well known, if not famous, and certainly beautiful, Perrine Bridge crossing the Snake River at Twin Falls. The bridge is named for I.B. Perrine who was largely credited as the main founder of Twin Falls.

If the Perrine Bridge is famous, aside from it's beauty and it's height of 486' above the Snake River, it is because people jump off of it!  Sure, they have parachutes, but still!

In the center of the bridge is a fellow who has stepped over the rail and is standing on a small lip of concrete 486' above the river below!

This is where I will remind you that if you click on any photo you can see the photo in higher resolution and slightly larger.

The dude isn't on the concrete lip anymore. He's suspended from that blue parachute just below and to the left of the arch apex.

When you parachute from a stationary object (i.e., not from a plane) it is called BASE jumping. BASE is an acronym standing for four categories of fixed objects: Buildings, Antennae, Spans, and Earth. Because of the low altitude and carrying only one parachute BASE jumping is considered one of the most dangerous extreme sports.

The Perrine bridge is the only man made structure in the USA where BASE jumping is allowed year round without a permit.

Now he's in the bridge shadow in the center of the photo.

There is a concrete pad with a target painted on it at the edge of the river. The blue parachute BASE jumper is about to land very close to the target.

 

We watched the BASE jumpers from the south side of the canyon. Janell took this video while I was taking stills.

 

Presumably these are twins.  

The city takes it's name from the two waterfalls in the Snake River canyon: Shoshone Falls (which you will see later in the post) and Pillar Falls.

We walked onto the bridge to get a closer view as more BASE jumpers prepared to jump. The Perrine bridge is 486’ above the river.  This is the view from the bridge (the landing target is just left and below the center). A looong way down!

A handful of BASE jumpers walked past us to the center of the bridge. We later learned that they were part of a class. Some of them were jumping for the first time!  How does one do something like that anytime, let alone the first time!

Two for one!

The fellow in blue straddling the railing is a particularly foolish man….

 

He paid a fee to do a jump attached to an experienced jumper. These guys came up behind us as we were watching the other jumpers from a distance (you can see them further out on the bridge). They brought with them the plywood platform (OSHA approved, no doubt.) They told us what was about to happen and said it was okay to watch from this distance.  So we did.

So the guy in blue has never met these people before, never done this before. He’s just paying for a thrill.  He looks remarkably calm (more so, if you ask me, than the experienced jumper in red.). 

Bombs away!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing for the jump.

 

 

 

 

 The actual jump starts in the video above and concludes in the one below.

 

 

 

 

We drove down into the Snake River canyon for this view of the majestic and graceful Perrine bridge...

...and stumbled up Perrine Coulee Falls as we drove back up.

 

 

You can walk behind the Falls, so I did!

I hope Carl has a sense of humor. I hope the wise guy employee still has a job…

The canyon and bridge from further upriver. We rode our bikes on the Snake River Canyon Rim Trail from the bridge to Shoshone Falls, roughly ten miles round trip.

Raise your hand if you remember Evel Knievel!

If you do, you may remember that Evel attempted to jump the Snake River canyon in 1974. His usual mode of stunt transportation was a motorcycle. The canyon is 1,600' wide so the X-2 Skycycle was designed for this stunt.

The mound in the photo above was the base for the jump. On this foundation a 180' tall almost vertical steel structure was built (think amusement park) from which Evel and the X-2 were propelled at nearly 300 miles per hour.

This is the view from the top of the dirt ramp to the other side of the canyon. Unfortunately the parachute on the X-2 Skycycle deployed prematurely and Evel drifted to earth in the canyon on the near side of the river. He was uninjured.

A short video about Evel's Snake River jump attempt

 

 

And a short article about the Snake River jump with some good still photos

On December 31, 1967 Evel jumped over the fountains at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, the jump that made him a legend. 12 years later I worked at Caesars Palace for two years while in college at UNLV, so I had an interest in this jump. 

This is a 48 second video of that jump. Spoiler alert: Evel didn't make it unscathed so don't watch this if you are squeamish.

 

Caesar's Palace Evel Knievel jump 

 

The Snake River looking east toward Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls has been called "The Niagara of the West".  At 212' high and 900' wide the falls are higher than Niagara Falls. Unfortunately in October, especially after a dry winter, there is not a lot of water in the river to fall. The bleached rock shows the width of the falls if you were to see it in spring or early summer. The darkish/greenish sections were the only parts with water flowing on this day.

You gotta like this guy's style!  This is one side of a double driveway gate just off the bike trail. Too bad the gate was open or I could have gotten a better photo (both gates had this graphic on them.)