Canyon Rim Trail

The Snake River Canyon feels out of place, a deep, sheer-walled gorge slicing through country that is otherwise open, irrigated plain. The canyon was cut long ago by the Snake and, geologists believe, by catastrophic ancient floods that scoured the plateau, leaving these dark basalt cliffs and hanging side canyons where springs still pour out of the rock. The rim trail follows the top edge of it for miles, paved and smooth, so the enormous view is available to anyone willing to walk.

Because the path stays on the level rim rather than dropping into the canyon, it is easy going, suited to families, strollers, and casual cyclists, with only a steeper section as it climbs toward the falls end. Interpretive spots and overlooks line the way, and the light changes the canyon hour by hour, so a walk here at sunrise or in the low gold of evening is a different experience from the flat glare of midday.

The centerpiece of the walk is the Perrine Bridge, a great steel arch that carries the highway across the canyon nearly five hundred feet above the river. It is one of the only places in the United States where BASE jumping is legal year-round without a permit, so on almost any decent day you can stand on the trail or the bridge overlooks and watch parachutes bloom as jumpers step off into the void and drift down to a landing area by the river. It is a genuinely astonishing thing to witness from solid ground.

Just to the east, the trail passes the site of one of the most famous stunts in American history. In 1974 the daredevil Evel Knievel had an earthen launch ramp built on the south rim and tried to jump the entire canyon aboard a steam-powered rocket cycle called the Skycycle. The parachute deployed too early, the machine drifted back into the canyon, and Knievel survived with only minor injuries, but the packed-earth ramp is still visible on the rim, a monument to sheer nerve.

Follow the rim east and the canyon leads toward Shoshone Falls, one of the great waterfalls of the American West. At around two hundred and twelve feet, the falls actually drop farther than Niagara, and in high water they thunder across a nine-hundred-foot wall of dark rock in a haze of spray and rainbows, which is how they earned the nickname Niagara of the West. A viewing park at the falls, reached by road or as the far goal of a long rim walk and ride, puts you right at the brink.

The falls are at the mercy of the season and the farmers. In spring, when the mountains melt, the Snake runs full and Shoshone Falls roars at its most powerful. By late summer, much of the river is diverted upstream to irrigate the Magic Valley's famous potato and bean fields, and the falls can shrink to threads over bare rock. To see them at full force, come in spring or early summer of a good snow year.

The trail is a free public path on the edge of Twin Falls, easiest to start from the Twin Falls Visitor Center near the west end, which has parking, restrooms, and its own dramatic canyon overlooks right beside the Perrine Bridge. From there you can walk as far as you like along the rim, turning back whenever you please, or ride the full length by bike toward the Shoshone Falls end.

There is almost no shade on the open rim, so carry water and wear a hat in summer, and expect a steady wind rising out of the canyon. Give yourself time to simply stand at the railings and take it in, the jumpers, the bridge, the river far below, and the long dark reach of the canyon, a piece of the wild West hiding at the edge of an ordinary farm town.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.