Holiday USA West Coast Road Trip in Aug 2022: Day 4 – Morning in Twin Falls

We get used to the early mornings in the first week or so of being in the US.  To be honest, we love it.  It was a tad chilly this morning: just 13 deg c with an expected high later in the day of 31 deg c.  That’s a big swing in temperature.

We walked out to the Starbucks close to the bridge where we had seen the base jumpers.  It opened at 5am and it was nice and quiet out on the roads at that time.  We walked back via the Snake River Canyon Rim trail.

The plan for the morning was simple: hire bikes at the Visitors’ Centre, ride up and down the Canyon Rim trail and then get a huge brunch somewhere local.  The plan for the afternoon was pretty clear as well: a long nap followed by another nice dinner.  We are just so easy.

The bikes were fairly cheap to hire: $15 for two hours.  To be honest, the staff at the Visitors’ Centre were not that skilled at tailoring the bikes to suit riders personal needs, so my saddle was nowhere near high enough.  I guess I could have taken it back and got it adjusted, but we both wanted to crack on…

We headed up towards Shoshone Falls.  For the first couple of miles, it was fairly easy going and we arrived at Evil Knievel’s launch site for his failed attempt at crossing the 1-mile-wide Snake River Canyon in a rocket powered motorcycle in 1974.

Beyond that point it became a lot hillier, with a long drop down to the Shoshone Falls. As soon as I saw the falls, I remembered our last visit.  We drove to the falls last time we were here and we only stayed overnight, so there was very little else we could fit in for the time we were at Twin Falls. Riding back up the hill was a bit of a challenge for both of us. 

This is where having a bike not configured to my height caused me a few problems.  Anyway, we both got back up to Knievel’s launch site again and it was plain sailing back to the Visitors’ Centre.

Follow the whole story here: Holiday USA West Coast Road Trip in Aug 2022