Monday, July 7, 2014

Day 58 - Baker City, Oregon to Twin Falls, Idaho (Bonus: Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and Shoshone Falls)

Although I made every effort to plan our trip to the fullest, we also try our best to maintain some flexibility. Today we used up all the flexibility we could imagine by leaving the campsite at 9:30 am and making it to our new destination around 9:10 pm. The actual drive time was only about 5 hours, but we used the remaining time to visit two sites that the local folks recommended: the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and Shoshone Falls. The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is in Baker City, Oregon. It's something to see if you are in the area. The museum appears new and some of the exhibits are interactive. I learned quite a bit. Somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people made the journey from east of the Missouri River to Oregon, in search of a better life. One out of 10 travelers didn't make it, most died from injury, malnutrition (or starvation), or sickness. The actual Oregon Trail route is very similar to the present route of interstate 84 route for much of the western portion of the trail.


Shoshone falls is often called "The Niagra of the West". The water falls a higher distance than Niagra, but the volume is less. The falls are very close to a stunt location where Ed Beckley will attempt to use a motorcycle to jump across the Snake river canyon in September 2014, something Evel Knievel attempted in 1974 but failed to complete (braking parachute malfunctioned and went off during the jump). If you are passing through Twin Falls, Idaho it's only 15 minutes off the interstate and well worth the visit.

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