Twin Falls, Idaho

Twin Falls will be the largest city we visit this month with over 51,000 people. We thought this would be a nice first stop to get our coach organized as it's only about 165 miles from our home....and boy....did we organize! Well, Kim has done most of it while I slept in....zzzzzzzzzzzz.

The big attraction in Twin Falls is the Shoshone Falls. Here's a few photos of when the Snake River is really flowing over the falls and some with very little.

Springtime runoff

We went here in the Fall to see the falls. I forgot that there's very little river flow during the autumn. Duh!

We went one time when there was so much mist we could hardly see the falls....but...

...but it made for some terrific rainbows.

The wind was blowing around 25mph. You can see how it is pushing the falls to the side.

Here's the overlook where you can view from above.

Shoshone Falls is 212 high which is 36" higher than Niagara Falls and flows over a rim 900 feet wide. Niagara Falls is 185 feet and is 1,060 feet wide. 

The flow of the Shoshone Falls is dependent on many variables. One of which is the amount of snowfall our region receives each winter. On years with heavy snowfalls, Shoshone Falls can reach flows upwards of 20,000 CFS (cubic feet per second). In a typical year, the spring flows at Shoshone Falls will peak between 10,000 and 12,000 CFS. To compare....Niagara Falls has Avg. Volume: 85,000 CFS.

The Snake River serves as the lifeblood of our region. Harnessing the water from the Snake River for irrigation is a crucial part of our local economy. Twenty miles upstream, the water is diverted to irrigate over 500,000 acres of farmland. It is estimated that the crops produced in these fields are worth $62,000,000 annually.

Chobani factory

Chobani (formerly Agro Farma) opened its new state-of-the-art yogurt manufacturing plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, US, in December 2012. Spread over an area of one million ft², which is equivalent to 20 football fields, it is the largest yoghurt production facility in the world. An investment of $450m was made in the facility.

We called to see if could get a tour but they don't have any. Rats.

We did not expect to see this in Twin Falls....it was right down the street from our RV park.

Chobani’s yoghurt is the best-selling yoghurt brand in the US. The new Twin Falls facility will help Chobani to increase its presence in the western part of the US and enable it to bring its products faster into the market. It will also enable the company to launch new product innovations.

The plant will use four to five million pounds of milk every day to produce 2.4 million cases of Greek yogurt per week.

We buy their yoghurt because we like to support the local products.

Once upon a time there was a shepherd

In 2005, Hamdi took a loan from the Small Business Administration, bought an old yogurt plant, and brought a small group of passionate individuals together to make the real, wholesome yogurt that he remembered from his childhood. He called the company Chobani, “shepherd” in Turkish, to endow it with the hard-working and compassionate spirit of the mountain farmer.

Perfecting our craft

For the next two years, Hamdi devoted himself to the craft, carefully building his team to ensure quality from the ground up. In 2007, his dream to make delicious, nutritious, natural, and accessible yogurt finally came to fruition, when the very first cup of Chobani® Greek Yogurt hit the shelf.

https://www.chobani.com/about/

Pretty neat story.

The Bonneville Flood

Thousands of years ago, the Great Salt Lake in Utah was once called Lake Bonneville and, you can see from the map below, how it almost covered all of western Utah.

Sometime between about 13 and 15 thousand years ago the northernmost arm of massive Lake Bonneville stood against a dam of relatively soft sedimentary rock and alluvium that blocked Red Rock Pass. As Lake Bonneville deepened rapidly at the end of the last ice age the water rose some 400 feet against this unconsolidated rock. At some point, as the planet began its lurch out of the ice age vast Lake Bonneville spilled over this dam. As the waters poured through the mountain pass they quickly ate their way through the 400 feet of softer material until they excavated down to a harder layer of granitic rock and there the lake stabilized for a time.

To compare the flow of the Lake Bonneville Flood....the local Teton Dam Flood had spent itself within 8 or 10 hours, the length of time it took for the reservoir to drain. Additionally, the peak discharge of one million cubic feet per second was only sustained for the first few hours after the dam collapsed and only in the immediate vicinity of the rupture. The distance encompassing serious damage downstream from the dam was perhaps 40 miles, for the flood wave had mostly spent itself by the time it reached Idaho Falls. 

By contrast, the Great Bonneville flood sustained peak discharges of about 40 million cubic feet per second for as long as a year, and the distance over which this peak discharge was maintained was more than 1000 miles.

https://sacredgeometryinternational.com/great-bonneville-flood-part-1/

https://sacredgeometryinternational.com/great-bonneville-flood-part-2/

Here's what the flood did to the Snake River canyon.

You can see the Snake River. Everything to the right and left was scoured by the Lake Bonneville Flood! Over 400 feet high and 70mph!

You can see the canyon walls to the right and left where the flood topped out. Amazing.

We did not know we would see so much in Twin Falls. But, it seems that no matter where we go, there's always more to see than what we believed. Life is grand!

Thank you for following. We'll see you from our next stop.

steve/kim/katie

If we are not watching, Katie likes to chew on the jigsaw pieces. We find them later all mashed up on the floor.