Free entertainment in Twin Falls, Idaho

It was only a 48-mile drive in the motor home to relocate to our next campground at Twin Falls County Fairgrounds. We can tell you that finding a full-hook-up 50-amp campground for $20 is a rare find this summer, and we are loving it here. Besides the exceptional value, we have free entertainment this weekend. We had the 4-H miniature horse competition, and the little horses and their owners were a treat to watch.

In this competition, the handlers lead their well-behaved little horses into the arena. But when the music starts . . .

the halter is removed and the handlers begin shaking their pom-poms. That's the signal for the horse to run around the arena, showing off its athleticism. After the 1.5-minute song stops, the handler then has another 1.5 minutes to get the horse caught and back into its halter. The horse is judged on how well they run, and the handler is judged on how easy it is to get the horse caught and calmed after all that activity. It's called the "liberty event" and it was great fun to learn and watch. That's good free entertainment!

Later in the day, we watched the big horses and the bigger riders in their tailored outfits and helmets.

We watched as they ran the course, jumping over barriers that were raised as the competition progressed. Now that's good free entertainment! Another evening they were having barrel racing in the stadium arena. It was there that we visited with the Fairgrounds manager, who was also running the tractor to smooth the dirt in the arena between rounds. The county fair starts here next week, and all the camping spaces have been reserved a year ago. So it's a good thing that we are here now instead of a week later.

As we finished setting up our motor home in this new campground, Mark stopped over to introduce himself to our new next-door neighbors. He was certainly surprised when she said, "You're Mark, right?" He stammered around, trying to remember meeting this woman and searching for her name. Rochelle and Joe had to smile at his awkwardness, because they knew that we had never met before. They discovered our blog some time ago, and recognized us and our rig from our pictures when we pulled up. We meet some of the nicest people on our journey and this was another example of that. Rochelle and Joe are full-timers, and they have been in Twin Falls for a few days, so they had some suggestions for more entertainment. From reading the blog, she knows that Denisa enjoys flowers, so she pointed out the rose garden here at the fairgrounds.

Denisa appreciated that tip, and we found more free entertainment here in Twin Falls!

They also told us about the nice visitor center in Twin Falls. We went there to get information, and also enjoyed the Perrine Stage Coach that is displayed inside the building. Mr. Perrine was a leader of commerce and transportation in the early years of Twin Falls.

So it is fitting that the impressive 486-feet-tall bridge that spans the Snake River gorge is named in his honor. The Perrine Bridge is adjacent to the visitor's center, and it even has a pedestrian lane. That means that anyone that wants to walk the length of the bridge cam get great views down the Snake River. That's more free entertainment!

On nice summer evenings, another form of free entertainment is watching the BASE jumpers leap off the Perrine Bridge. BASE is actually an acronym for the four categories of places that they jump from--Buildings, Antennae, Spans (bridges) and Earth (cliffs). They take that pedestrian lane to walk out to the center of the bridge, and then climb over the rail. You can see a jumper in the picture below, ready to jump as he throws his red parachute into the air.

He jumps, and (hopefully) the wind fills the parachute with air as he floats down towards the water. You can see that bright red parachute in the middle of the picture below.

It was fun following the same jumper all the way down.

We watched several jumpers this evening, and it's another example of good free entertainment. The jumpers all landed on a cleared area on the side of the river. 

Then they take the well-worn path up the very steep river canyon to get back to the bridge. While we were watching from the rim of the gorge, it's also a great view from kayaks on the river. You can see seven boats in the water this evening, watching the free BASE jumper show.

We saw jumpers re-packaging their parachutes on the lawn of the visitor's center, making ready for another jump. We talked to a couple jumpers, and one of them moved to Twin Falls specifically because of this bridge. It's hard to find a place to legally jump off high bridges, and the city of Twin Falls has embraced this extreme sport.

Another good free form of entertainment is riding bicycles on the many bike paths in Twin Falls. We rode on the Canyon Rim trail one evening. Not long after mounting our bikes at a trail head, we could see the Perrine Bridge in the distance and Centennial Park right below us.

This is great paved trail that gives nice views of the Snake River far below. We were a little surprised that we were very often pedaling very close to that steep edge with no railing . . .

while other times we had a stout fence protecting us from that edge.

Along this route is a marker commemorating Evel Knievel's attempted "leap" across the Snake River Gorge in 1974.

We remember watching on television as Evel Knievel was seated in the "Skycycle" and was propelled at 300 mph across this wide canyon. When the safety parachute opened, he floated down on the near-side of the canyon--not even close to making the mile-long-ride to the other side.

A launching ramp was built on this side of the river gorge. Today, all that is left of the 1800-foot-tall structure is this mound of dirt.

The paved path winds through some residential areas and beside some pastures with sheep and cattle, but our destination is the rim view of Shoshone Falls.

When the path made a steep descent to get closer views of Shoshone Falls, we parked our bikes at the top. Then we walked down to the Shoshone Falls Visitor's Center for the closest view from land. This is also free entertainment for us. If you drive a car to this visitor center, there is a $5 fee, but walkers can enter for free.

One last view of the falls, before we turn around to make the walk and bike ride back to town.

We waited until evening to make this ride, allowing the weather to cool a little before we rode our bikes ten miles. We are already getting that orange glow from the setting sun as we approach the Knievel Hill, so we had to pick up some speed if we wanted to make it home before dark.

Sure enough, we got to witness sunset from the canyon rim trail as we approached the bridge this evening. It's been a great day with plenty of free entertainment here in Twin Falls. We think we're going to like it here!