Twin Falls is a 120-foot plunge waterfall on the Snake River in Jerome County, Idaho, on the county line with Twin Falls County a few miles east of the city that took its name. The Northwest Waterfall Survey calls it the second-largest falls on the Snake after Shoshone Falls, though a 1930s dam and power plant now take most of its water.
The falls
The river originally went over the rim in two side-by-side plunges, with a smaller third channel running at high water. The power station was built over one channel, a dam blocked the other and the third was filled for access roads; what remains visible is a drop of about 80 feet, and the flow allowed over it can be cut to almost nothing. The survey figure is 120 feet; other published heights range from 125 to 200 feet, and the falls average about 100 feet wide. The falls are cut in rhyolite and were carved by the Lake Bonneville Flood about 14,500 years ago.
Getting there
Idaho Power runs Twin Falls Park, a 10-acre day-use area off Falls Avenue about two miles upstream of Shoshone Falls Park. Entry is free, and the park is open daily from 8 a.m. to dark. A picnic shelter can be reserved for $75 a day, including a $25 non-refundable reservation fee, plus state tax.
When to go
Because the dam controls the flow, the falls can be nearly dry. The spring runoff after a winter of unusually heavy snow in the Rocky Mountains brings the strongest flow.
On site
The park has a viewpoint with interpretive panels, restrooms, picnic tables, barbecue stands and a boat ramp with docks, and the site is listed as accessible. The ramp serves as the take-out for the Murtaugh Reach, a Class IV whitewater run on the Snake, and the park also offers fishing access. Twin Falls County prohibits swimming, boating and any other river access in the posted zone between the dam and powerhouse and the buoy line upstream.
History and name
Idaho Power built its original Twin Falls plant in 1935 and upgraded it in 1995. The falls gave the city of Twin Falls its name.
Nearby
Shoshone Falls is about 2.3 miles downstream, Bridal Veil Falls about 2.1 miles and Pillar Falls, also on the Snake, about 3.9 miles. Vineyard Lake Falls is about half a mile away.
Distances are straight-line.