Twin Falls Idaho Adventure Guide

Southern Idaho’s Twin Falls attracts risk-takers and thrill-seekers

written by James Sinks | photography by Visit Idaho

Adrenaline comes from two primary places: your adrenal glands and Twin Falls, Idaho. Built at the edge of a 500-foot-deep canyon carved by the Snake River, the community of some 55,000 people is a scenic stepping-off point—and for daredevils, a jumping-off spot—for a plethora of pulse-quickening and sense-satisfying adventures.

The most renowned of local risk-takers was legendary stuntman and frequent bonebreaker Evel Knievel, who gained worldwide attention just over a half century ago when he planned to soar across the canyon on a rocket motorcycle.

In September 1974, with a rowdy crowd watching and television cameras rolling, the stuntman—wearing his signature white leather jumpsuit—hit the throttle in his steam-powered “X-2 Skycycle” and flew up a ramp. But the attempt fizzled when his parachute prematurely ejected on takeoff.

The rocket spun downward into the canyon, and Knievel suffered a broken nose, adding to the long list of fractures that put him in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Today, without breaking your nose (hopefully), you can navigate the picturesque trail at the canyon’s edge and visit the earthen ramp at the jump site, now a monument to the 1974 spectacle that almost was.

And from there, it’s 2 miles to an natural spectacle: Shoshone Falls, which at 212 feet high and 900 feet across has been dubbed the Niagara Falls of the West. The thundering falls are most dramatic in the spring, thanks to snowmelt and prior to irrigation diversions upstream. In addition, palettes of wildflowers color the canyon rim.

The falls were once an important fishing and trading spot for the Shoshone and Bannock tribes that long roamed the volcanic Snake River plain. Excavations in a cave at nearby Wilson Butte, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management site that looks like a giant bubble in a lava field, found evidence of human settlement going back 10,000 years.

Twin Falls and the surrounding Magic Valley owe their contemporary prominence to risk takers of the financial sort, who built a dam to feed canals across the then-barren landscape. The mastermind was an early 1900s rancher and entrepreneur named Ira B. Perrine, and the towering highway bridge spanning the canyon on the north side of the city is named for him.

Today, the 488-foot-high Perrine Bridge is where you’ll find risk takers of the aerial sort.

Iconic bridge spanning the deep canyon in Oregon's Daredevil Country, showcasing rugged cliffs and a winding river below, highlighting adventurous landscapes. — The Perrine Bridge spans the Snake River Canyon.

When weather accommodates, people hurl themselves off the side and then open parachutes on the way down. It’s one of the few bridges in the United States where BASE jumping is legal. An extreme sport, BASE means jumps from a fixed spot, such as Buildings, Antennas, Spans (such as a bridge) or the Earth (cliffs).

Interested? Chances are, you won’t be going solo because abundant skydiving experience—as in, more than 200 jumps—is a prerequisite. However, outfitters in Twin Falls allow thrill-seekers—including people with disabilities—to take the plunge in tandem with a local expert.

“If you wonder what it’s like to feel like a superhero, you’ll be interested,” said Sean Chuma, who has been jumping for seventeen years and started the world’s first tandem BASE jumping business, Tandem BASE, in Twin Falls. He has about 100 takers each season, which runs from mid-March through November.

The flight only takes about thirty seconds to a landing field next to the river. About a second of it is a free fall.

“Your instincts tell you not to do it, because we are programmed to not jump off bridges, and it’s a great feeling when you land,” he said. “Falling for most people is a terrifying thing, but in a controlled environment like this you can embrace and overcome that feeling.”

If parachuting isn’t your jam, there are other, slower options to reach the canyon floor. You can even rent bicycles in advance for your visit from Bike Twin Falls.

On the way down, hike the trail that goes behind the year-round Perrine Coulee Falls. At Centennial Waterfront Park, fly down ziplines at a course where the final segment is a third of a mile long. And from the park, it’s breath-taking-in-an-exercise-way to kayak upstream to the base of Shoshone Falls. It’s an 8-mile-roundtrip trek, with a portage midway past the smaller Pillar Falls. If you book a kayak tour from outfitter AWOL Adventure Sports, you can ride their pontoon boat partway.

Majestic waterfall cascading down rugged cliffs in Daredevil Country, Oregon, showcasing the region's dramatic landscape and natural beauty. — Hiking behind Perrine Coulee Falls is a summer must and a summer mist.

At city-owned Dierkes Lake, rock climbers can ply some of Idaho’s best vertical routes, with both roped and bouldering options up basalt cliffs. There’s a $5 vehicle fee.

Forty minutes from town and starting in late spring, ride rollicking Snake River rapids through what’s known as the Hagerman stretch. If you’d rather bounce on land—much like the onetime pioneers on the Oregon Trail that crossed through before the city was born—the Sawtooth National Forest to the south boasts miles of offroad ATV trails. Rather explore underground? The chilly Shoshone Ice Caves are open from May through September.

Mountain bikers riding through a scenic, rugged Oregon landscape with lush green cliffs and open fields under a bright blue sky. — A beautiful mountain bike ride in the Snake River Canyon.

Of course, Twin Falls also offers tamer options, like smashing golf balls at the base of the canyon, and tuber options, like exploring downtown and celebrating the appeal of local potatoes—including in vodka form.

From the Oregon-connected history department, it’s 20 miles from town to the Minidoka National Historic Site, now a somber educational monument at the place where some 13,000 Japanese-American citizens—many of them from Portland and Hood River—were banished during World War II.

If your idea of thrills involves plants, check out the Orton Botanical Garden, which features an array of flowering native species and is open late spring through fall—and in the offseason by appointment. Part of the program involves propagating Idaho high desert cacti. “Yes, it can be a prickly adventure,” laughed board president LaMar Orton.

Wind down from your adrenalizing adventures with dinner and stories on the patio—weather permitting—at Elevation 486. Situated 486 feet above the canyon floor, the restaurant’s views are reliably as awesome as your company, your beverages and your Twin Falls memories. And hopefully, with no broken noses.