Minnetonka Cave

Minnetonka Cave, located near the town of Montpelier, Idaho, in the Caribou National Forest, is Idaho’s largest cave! It is composed of stalactites, stalagmites and banded travertine which measure over 10 feet high and 4 feet wide! These natural formations have become a major attraction, and tours are offered throughout most of the year.

Although the cave itself is millions of years old, Minnetonka Cave wasn’t discovered until 1907 by grouse hunters. It was then opened for tours in 1947 for all to enjoy. Although the entire maze of caves is not developed for touring, a substantial portion is available to the public. The touring section includes the 7,700ft entrance and 9 separate chambers, with a ceiling height in the largest chamber, referred to as the Ballroom, of 90 feet!

Tours of the Minnetonka Caves are organized by the United States Forest Services and run seven days a week, starting in the middle of June and continuing through Labor Day. The Minnetonka Caves Tour takes visitors on a beautiful, guided, 90-minute, half-mile stretch of the caves, spanning 400 steps, and into its chilly, 40*F depths. Don’t miss this striking, natural landmark on your next trip!

Rates and hours can be found at www.bearlake.org/cavexplore.html.
*Article information courtesy of www.destination360.com and www.bearlake.org.

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Hagerman & Thousand Springs by William Schnupp

As you follow Idaho’s Snake River southeast toward Hagerman and the Thousand Springs area, there is a palpable sense of traveling into the past. The present is no more than a memory as time begins to dissipate like late winter fog in the sunlight. Clusters of buildings become patchy, and give way to low, scrubby hills and sandy fields. Humanity’s presence fades as volcanic canyon walls thrust skyward, and from their every crack and fissure, in places like Niagara Springs State Park, the waters of the Snake River Plain Aquifer gush as they have for thousands of years, whispering to onlookers ancient secrets long-held beneath the rocks.

These waters flow at a constant 58 degrees, and for this reason trout hatcheries and aquaculture facilities thrive here. Nearly 70 percent of the rainbow trout slated for commercial consumption in the United States today is produced in Thousand Springs facilities. Opportunities to enjoy these remarkable fish, however, are not solely commercial. For the angler armed with a handful of slim graphite ambition, the waters of the Snake and Malad Rivers, Billingsley Creek, and lakes like Ostler and Clear provide chances to tangle with acrobatic and often under-cautious rainbows. For hands more accustomed to the feel of a paddle than a fishing pole, the Hagerman Reach of the Snake River offers world class opportunities for whitewater rafting, kayaking, and swimming. To warm up after a lengthy float, natural hot springs bubble up from the earth into pools at Thousand Springs Resort, Miracle, and Banbury Hot Springs.

The most breathtaking aspect of the waters in the Thousand Springs area, though, lies 40 minutes further south, near the town of Twin Falls. It is here that Shoshone Falls, carved out by the massive Bonneville Flood 15,000 years ago, rains down 212 feet from towering rock spires into the Snake River—nearly 50 feet higher than Niagara Falls. The falls are most easily viewed from observation points in Shoshone Falls State Park, but for those intrepid souls with the desire to glimpse this marvel of nature close-up, local charters offer dinner and sightseeing cruises.

If close proximity to the falls fails to entice the more daring visitor, a short trip only a few miles downriver leads to the Perrine Bridge. The bridge, at almost 500 feet tall, stretches 1,500 feet across the Snake River Canyon. When the original structure was completed in 1927, it was the highest bridge in the world. It’s not Perrine’s former world-record status that draws onlookers today, though; nor is it the nearness of the structure to the site of Evel Knievel’s failed 1974 attempt to jump the canyon on his motorcycle. What draws thrill seekers to Perrine Bridge today is its unique status as the only man-made structure in the United States where BASE jumping is allowed without a permit. It’s an unmatched opportunity to watch—and perhaps take part in—slipping the bonds of earth and gravity for a few seconds, and reveling in a breathless sense of weightless liberty.

The assets of the region are not all so lofty. Equally wondrous opportunities can quite literally be found at ground level. In a stunning and pleasant dichotomy, visitors can walk the paved streets of Hagerman to the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, journeying 3 or 4 million years back into the late Pliocene epoch in just a few strides. Once there, the fossilized remains of over 220 species of plants and animals await, including the largest single deposit of Equus simplicidens—a zebra-like ancestor to the horse—to be found anywhere in North America.


For those whose interests encompass larger geological attractions, Malad Gorge State Park is close by, where a several-mile system of scenic loops and hiking trails offer amazing views of the gorge. It’s in this steep, rocky chasm that the Malad plunges sixty feet into the Devil’s Wash Basin—a rocky tub carved out by thousand of years of water fall—to join the mighty Snake River. Days can easily pass as heartbeats when exploring the many peaks and perches of this massive natural sculpture.

Wherever your interests in the Thousand Springs region lie—whether plying the many waters for their silver-scaled denizens; making a pilgrimage to the sandy tomb of ancient creatures; chasing the teasing mist of the Niagara of the West; or tumbling through space from the top of Perrine Bridge, when you’re caught up in the fading half light of a sunset in the area’s volcanic canyons, you will feel the land in your bones. The timeless beauty of the place becomes an ache within you, and against that unchanging landscape, the fleeting grace of your lifetime is quickened, perceived more intensely and more truly than ever before.

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