Idaho: Potatoes and....Volcanoes?

By Alyssa and Brittany 
Yep, we didn’t believe it either til we actually arrived! Idaho could have been a pass-thru state for all I cared, but I’m glad we spent some time there because now I know that Idaho does have a few gems worth seeing.  
 
TWIN FALLS: SHOSHONE FALLS AND SNAKE RIVER CANYON
Twin Falls is not impressive, but most of the fun activities we did were in that area. Just before 8 am on a stormy Tuesday we drove into the Shoshone Falls State Park. The falls and the Snake River Canyon to the left of the falls were beautiful. The river was formed about 17,500 years ago by a massive flood that came out of Lake Bonneville, which is now the Great Salt Lake. Fun fact: Evel Knievel tried (unsuccessfully) to jump it in the 70’s!

 
SHOSHONE INDIAN ICE CAVES
On our way up to Hailey, we saw a giant sign for Ice Caves luring us off Highway 75. We were intrigued. When we pulled up on the dirt road we were greeted by a giant green dinosaur with a Native American riding on his head. 

Kitschy to the max, but I really did enjoy it! The tour is $10 which seemed a little steep to us, but it ended up being really cool (no pun intended). You walk through lava fields to the ice cave, where you will learn about Idaho’s history of volcanic activity and how the landscape was formed. I never knew Idaho had so many volcanoes and lava beds! This rocky/sandy terrain from the lava rock is why Idaho grows such good potatoes. The ice cave is freeezzziing cold.  Our informative guide told us that the cave has 20,000 tons of ice and never gets above 33 degrees. 
 
CLOVERLEAF CREAMERY

We stopped by a dairy creamery in the town of Buhl, which is just outside of Twin Falls. CloverLeaf is a family run business that specializes in making milk, cheese, ice cream, and butter. They started out with a dairy farm and eventually bought the creamery which is just a few miles away from their farm. The owner, Bill, was nice enough to give us a tour around the creamery where we got to watch them make homemade ice cream and pack butter by hand.

Bill's Son Packing Butter

He also explained his philosophy on how to make a great product by keeping things as close to their natural state as possible. The cows are treated like family and each have a name. They get to roam on 30 acres of green grass and even have a professional bovine nutritionist. After our tour he let us try some of their potato ice cream. Sounds totally weird which is why I had to try it. Soooo good and wildly different from the “ice cream” you get in the supermarkets. This is the real deal. The creamery was definitely a highlight of my stay in the Twin Falls area.

BALANCED ROCK

Ok folks, DO NOT go out of your way to see this. We thought we were pretty close when we saw the signs and figured, “why not?!” So we drove and drove, came up to the rock which was pretty small, took a picture for our efforts and left. I know that’s our punishment for visiting a tourist trap, but we were trying to find things to do!

HAILEY AND SUN VALLEY
The terrain sure did change just by driving a couple hours north. We were no longer in farmland but were surrounded by beautiful mountains and green hills. Definitely my type of landscape. Sun Valley is such a beautiful place, and if you like to resort then this is your place. Most of the shops were closed because it was too early, but I couldn’t afford anything anyways!

Hills and Mountains! Yay!

ATOMIC POWER PLANT

Just as we were leaving Idaho we saw a sign for the Atomic Energy museum and decided to pop in for a visit. If you’re in the area (aka the middle of nowhere), check out the world’s first power plant. The EBR-I Atomic Museum is located on Highway 20/26 between Idaho Falls and Arco. The museum is where usable electricity was first generated from nuclear energy in 1951. It has some fun interactive displays and lots of information that was beyond my comprehension. And the best part….? It’s FREE!

Playing with Nuclear Toys

In all fairness, I can’t make a sweeping generalization that most of Idaho is flat land with not much to do since the farthest we went was Sun Valley. While Idaho wouldn't be on my top 10 list, I enjoyed my time there and the people we met.