A Tourist's Guide to Shoshone Falls Idaho

This guide to Shoshone Falls is not a typical tourist guide. I am not a travel writer. I don’t work for a travel agency I am just a simple tourist. I've written this article from a real tourists’ perspective, mine.

What you read is my own personal experience as a tourist. A Tourist that was actually visiting Shoshone Falls. I Hope that this guide will give you a realistic idea of what is on offer at the Falls.

This is not some blurb written by someone with a vested interest.
I hope also that my photos will give a small taste of what is actually there.

Like a lot of places that we visit on our holidays, Shoshone Falls was not a pre planned place for us to visit.

We came across a sign for Shoshone Falls posted along our route to Boise. We were heading towards Boise to visit a friend, ahh sweet serendipity.

Before we saw the sign we did not know there was such a place. When we saw the sign post we thought that it looked interesting. We soon made our way there, and when you see the photographs, I think that you will agree that it was well worth the detour.

As the sign on the first photograph says, welcome to Shoshone Falls. Or rather in this case welcome to our visit to Shoshone Falls.

The noise from the water crashing 212 feet down over the falls is absolutely deafening. I wish I had recorded the sound for you.

There is a fine spray that is thrown up as the water crashes onto the rocks below. If the sun is shining it often produces rainbows and at least one of our photos has such a rainbow in it.

Shoshone Falls is often referred to as the Niagara Falls of the West. At 212 feet, Shoshone has in fact, a drop of around thirty feet more than that of Niagara Falls.

There are viewing walk ways and platforms, and you can feel the fine spray thrown up by the falls on your face. I am sure if there is a wind that you can get quite wet fast.

The falls get their name from the Shoshone Indian tribe. The Shoshone Indians used to live in this region long before the white settlers came.

Shoshone Falls is on the Snake River in Idaho not too far from the City of Twin Falls.

The falls are a majestic sight. The first time we saw them they took our breath away.
You could feel the awesome power of the water as it thundered down crashing onto the rocks 212 feet below.

The sound was deafening. You not only could hear the sound but you could also feel the sound. We were not left in any doubt of the power that Mother Nature had unleased.

The sight was captivating, I just wanted to stand and drink it all in. It is the most beautiful waterfall that I have ever seen. I am so glad that we happened to see the sign post.

The weather on the day we visited was ideal and we came away with some beautiful photographs.

Our visit took place in March so we came upon the Falls at the best time of the year when the water levels are at their best.

We are told that in July and August the water can be diverted off for agricultural use. Because of this the falls can be reduced almost to a trickle.

This must be very disappointing if you travelled to see the falls and all you got was a trickle.

I am now just going to share the rest of the photos and I am going to let them speak for themselves as I think that they are far more eloquent than I am.

Up above the falls we met a lady who was fishing in the crystal clear water.
We were fortunate enough to see her catch a fish which I think was a Rainbow Trout.

The lady very kindly let us take a photograph of her and the fish that she caught. She was going to take the fish home and have it grilled with fixings for her dinner.

There is nothing quite like eating fish that has been freshly caught. Especially when you are the one that caught the fish.

I would like to have included a photo of what the locals call Rock Chucks (Marmots). We saw them all over the place but when we tried to get a photograph they disappeared.

They seemed to melt away faster than snow on a hot griddle. That is my feeble attempt at saying it like an American, I had better stick to plain old English.

As I was saying they kept disappearing before we could get a photograph. So the next best thing is a photograph of my friend trying to get a photo of the little critters.

Thanks for visiting and I hope that you have enjoyed this little tourist’s visit to Shoshone Falls. Now you know that there is more to Idaho than just potatoes.

Thanks again for your visit please leave a comment