Twin Falls Travel Guide

The Perrine Memorial Bridge spans the Snake River Canyon at Twin Falls, Idaho, its deck soaring about 148 metres above the water over a span of more than 450 metres, among the highest bridges in the United States. Completed in 1976 to replace a 1927 span, it is named for Ira C. Perrine, the irrigation pioneer who opened the surrounding desert to farming. World-famous among BASE jumpers, it is one of the few bridges where the sport is legal year-round, drawing crowds each October for its annual festival. Even for onlookers, the sight of parachutes drifting down from the deck is unforgettable.

Shoshone Falls, on Idaho's Snake River, plunges 64 metres — taller than Niagara — earning the name 'Niagara of the West.' Best seen in late spring when snowmelt swells the river, the horseshoe curtain of water thunders into a basalt gorge. Long used by the Shoshone and later a 19th-century tourist draw, the falls sit within a city park with rim trails and overlooks. At dusk the lights come on; in dry late summer the flow is diverted for irrigation and the falls thin. A reminder that the West's water is both spectacle and resource.