By: Gurneha And Prithvi
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Southern Idaho. A Hidden Gem

A 4 day immersive trip to Southern Idaho

We have a constant quest to make our trips interesting, often by visiting places that are not really publicized for their tourist attractions. This Summer we visited Southern Idaho to explore the region and Spoiler alert, we loved every bit of it. Idaho in general evokes a sense of potatoes and farms and country to a commoner, but there is so much more to it. The best part of this region is the people! I am confident you wont find people as friendly or adventurous as much as folks from this part of the country. Come along with us to spend 4 days in a short yet immersive experience exploring Southern Idaho.

How to get there

The easiest way to get to any of Idaho’s major cities and attractions is to fly into Boise International or Twin Falls airports, which are both very well connected with most major cities in the US. We chose to fly into Boise and we were able to quickly head out after renting our car from the airport itself.

Day 1 : Hagerman, hot springs and Exploring Southern Idaho’s Countryside

For Day 1 we begin our journey in Hagerman where we also plan to stay the night. We stayed at a cosy lodge Billingsley Creek Lodge, there are plenty of such lodges in nearby cities as well, so do check out cities like Buhl for many more such option.

Start early with a fresh cup of coffee at Bullets n Brew as there are plenty of adorable waterfalls to explore and take pictures of on today’s agenda. Thousand Island State park is one of the most famous parks to visit in this area and it is spread out across Hagerman/Buhl Area. Some of the absolute must do include going to Ritter Island and taking a peek at how early settlers constructed barns and dams to make most of the natural resources. Just outside Ritter Island is the famous Lemmon Falls. This falls is absolutely gorgeous and we recommend making a quick stop here for photos. This falls is easily accessible via a very short trail from the parking lot of Ritter Island entrance.

Box Canyon is also a part of this state park and has this really cool trail that comes very highly recommended to do when you are here. This trail meanders on the side of the canyon all the way to to some pristine springs and waterfalls. A couple of things to note when you head out on this trail, depending on the time of the year, this place can get quite hot when the sun is out, keep plenty of hydration ready. There are two parking lots and the one next to the trail is very convenient, however it does get full, fret not there is an overflow parking a mile away as well. The Trail itself is not very challenging but you will be passing through a lot of vegetation and narrow routes through shrubbery so it would be a good idea to apply bug repellant on yourself.

By now I imagine you would be pretty tired after the hike, so depending on time you have remaining for the day, you can either soak at Miracle or Banbury hot springs and/or also Kayak to Blue Heart springs , a pristine water body that you should not miss. Reservations are highly recommended for hot springs especially if you are looking for a private soak, for the public pool you should be fine without reservations. At Banbury you can also rent out kayaks to take them out for a spin on snake river, which is just adjacent to the hot springs. A hidden gem is the Blue heart springs situated about a north of Banbury hot springs. You start by paddling downstream for about 40 min to get to the springs. The water is so clear that you can easily look at the bottom of the springs, as well as indulge in some soaking here! Do note that the paddling in and out takes about 2 hours in itself, so make sure to budget time accordingly.

Our lunch for this day was at Kanaka’s bistro, which served generous sandwiches of every kind and for dinner we stumbled upon Fire Pie Pizza in Hagerman. They have wood fired pizzas with unique flavors and we absolutely devoured them after our long day!

You can choose to end the day here in Hagerman/Buhl or if you are feeling like it, skip staying here for the night and drive down to Twin Falls.

Day 2 : Twin Falls.

Regardless of where you stayed the previous night, head over to balanced rock just 30 miles west of twin falls and very near to Buhl. The views from here are very surreal and will remind you of the the dessert terrain of neighboring states Arizona, Utah and Nevada. The hike up is on a very minimally maintained yet short climb. Once up admire the country side and when its time to make your way back, be sure to take a lot of pictures.

If you are hungry already when you get to Twin Falls, check out Koto Brewing company for their lunch/dinner options. They are situated in downtown Twin Falls and have a great selection of beer and food to sample on. This is also a wonderful time to take a stroll in the historic lanes of Downtown Twin Falls. If you feel like coffee, Twin Beans Coffee is a convenient place to pick your cappuccinos and lattes from!

We then spent the remaining part of the day doing water & other activities at Centennial Waterfront Park. Situated in Twin Falls, its not much of a drive to get here, and there are activities ranging from Kayaking, Stand up paddle boarding, boat tours and zip-lining for every type of person. You can also chill with some drinks in this waterfront park. We kicked off our afternoon with almost a 4 hour kayaking self tour of Pillar Falls from the waterfront park. This is a long journey but the views are so worth it. You will pass Perrine Memorial Bridge, the only legal bridge for BASE jumping in US, so be extra careful and keep a lookout for base jumpers. Also definitely stop and admire the courage and adventure streak of these individuals, we certainly did! At Pillar falls, we diembarked from kayaks and explored the area for some more waterfalls.

We then decided to Zipline across small hills in the park. Neither of us had done this before so we were not only excited but scared as well. But our instructors were super chill and we had a blast zipping across lines. When we reported back to the park activity center, we impromptu decided to take a boat tour again to Pillar falls with a group and guide. We enjoyed every min of it and the stories that helped shape the Twin Falls Community. Plus we took some more photos!

It was almost time for sunset and a spot that is highly recommended is the Perinne Coulee Falls, just adjacent to the water park. Its a very small and easy hike, but you can experience going behind the scenes of a waterfall and looking through the water to watch the sun set over Idaho’s Hills.

For Dinner you will find plenty of restaurants in Twin Falls, including all the popular chain ones. We decided to grab food at A Taste of Thai and we loved everything we ordered here!

Day 3 Explore More of Twin Falls

Our plan was to catch sunrise at Shoshone Falls and we did that exactly. Although at the time of writing and based on local sources, the water wasn’t really flowing down from the falls as you may have seen on Instagram, because authorities were saving water for the wild fire emergencies. Nevertheless I could imagine once I was here why Shoshone is known as the Niagara of the west. We waited for sometime here until the sun was up before we head out to grab some coffee and grub at Twin Beans Coffee. We absolutely loved the vibe of this place, and would highly recommend you making a stop here for food and coffee!

After exploring shops in downtown Twin Falls we then set out to visit the fabled Shoshone Ice Caves, a hour’s drive north of Twin Falls. Here you can experience the Ice caves in a guided tour, so be sure to get a jacket for the tour, because it will get cold in the caves!

We decided to visit the Perrine Bridge viewpoint. Here you can walk around the bridge’s southern end and also catch a very good glimpse of the base jumpers. We then decided to take it easy and head for dinner at Milner’s Gate in downtown Twin Falls. Milner’s gate is a brewery as well and they have a great selection of beer and food. As the sun started setting, we were recapping some of the most fun we have had visiting a new place in a long while!

Day 4: Teepee Rocks, City of Rocks National Preserve and Heading back home

Our final day of the trip was the one we were most looking forward too, as we had researched a lot about teepee rocks and we couldn’t wait until we get there. We started really early and started driving based on the directions provided in the Southern Idaho Tourism page (link) , if you follow these you should reach teepee rocks trailhead in about 2 hours from downtown Twin falls. The final stretch of the road is National Forest dirt road, so would recommend a decent 4*4 car for this journey. When you reach the coordinates, be sure to park in the parking lot just after the metal gates and walk further ahead for an hour or if you are feeling like it you can also take your car all the way till you start seeing these weird rock structures. The road from parking lot till trail head is extremely narrow and is mostly loose soil, so a 4*4 is definitely required! Usually there are not a lot of people here, so you can take your time and explore as much as you feel like before making your way back!

We then quickly turned around towards Oakley again and headed to a quick tour of the City of Rocks National preserve. Although we didn’t hike here, if you do have time on your cards, this would be a great place to learn more about the geology as well as the plants and animals that inhabit this part of the world.

  • Pillar falls
  • Pillar falls

We were also looking forward to our lunch at Elevation 486 in Twin Falls. This place is truly amazing, they have beer selection from their sister enterprise Milner’s and also a very eye-catching lunch menu. And to top it all off they have views of the Gorge! This place is packed most days, so a reservation is definitely recommended, although we didn’t get a dinner reservation, I bet it would be pretty amazing views!

We then proceeded to Boise about 3 hours away to get to our flight back. We had an amazing 4 days in Southern Idaho, exploring nature, water, food and people and we can’t wait to go back and explore some more in the future