Thousand Springs: Shoshone Falls to Hagerman

The Route at a Glance

This is the stretch where the Snake River is taken away and given back. At Shoshone Falls, east of Twin Falls, what reaches the rim depends on how much Milner Dam upstream has already sent into the canals; in late summer the riverbed below Milner can run dry. By the time the river reaches Hagerman, fifty miles on, it is running full again, and almost none of the new water came from upstream. It came out of the canyon walls.

From the falls, head back through Twin Falls and west through the farm country the canals built to Buhl, then north on US-30 toward the river. The road drops into the Snake River canyon at Thousand Springs, where the aquifer under the lava plain pours out of the north wall in white falls and seeps, and crosses to the north side. A short way on, a side road leads to Box Canyon Springs, a dead-end canyon filled by a single spring of about 180,000 gallons a minute, water that sank into the lava far to the northeast. The trout farms along this reach use the same water; the valley became the largest center of trout farming in the country.

US-30 runs on to Hagerman, where the Thousand Springs Visitor Center, north of town, holds the only fossils on show from Hagerman Fossil Beds, the state fossil among them. The monument's overlooks and the Oregon Trail ruts are across the river on Bell Rapids Road. The route ends at Bliss, where US-30 meets I-84.

Spring, when the falls run full, is the time to drive it. The springs pour the same in every season.

The Drive, Stop by Stop

4 stops along the route, in driving order from Shoshone Falls, Twin Falls to Bliss, Idaho. One of them sits off the road itself — the distance is noted on each.

1. 1

   Shoshone Falls

   Twin Falls

   The park on the south rim east of Twin Falls; check the posted flow.

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2. 2

   Perrine Bridge

   Twin Falls

   US-93 over the canyon at the north edge of Twin Falls; park at the visitor center on the south rim.

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3. 3

   Box Canyon Springs

   Wendell

   North of the river off US-30; a rim trail and a 300-foot descent to the spring.

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4. 4

   Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument

   Hagerman

   3.9 miles off the route

   Fossils at the Thousand Springs Visitor Center north of Hagerman; overlooks on Bell Rapids Road.

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That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let Thousand Springs: Shoshone Falls to Hagerman do what it does best.