Day 4 – Our earliest day yet! We were at the gate around 6:45. Did the Fountain Flat Drive and spent some time with a bison herd. You’re a little one wants breakfast in the middle of the road? Well, stop traffic and have at it!
We liked being up close and watching them for a bit.
Then it was a stop at the Fountain Paint Pots.
And on to the Midway Geyser Basin and Grand Prismatic Spring. It was still pretty early and we felt like it was tough to get a good view of the Grand Prismatic from there.
We drove on down the road to the Fairy Falls trail where you can also hike to a viewpoint overlooking the Grand Prismatic. We thought the hike to Fairy Falls was quite nice although it gets packed in the parking area.
So, my advice, if you get to the Fairy Falls early, like we did around 9. Hike to the falls first, then go up to the Prismatic Observation area. The hike up to the overlook from that side seemed less taxing and the views were better at mid-day. Then you can head back to your car and let one of the number of people circling the parking lot have your spot.
Biscuit basin is still closed. So, we headed to Black Basin, and the parking was full. We continued on to the West Thumb area. In hindsight, it would have been better to hit the West Thumb Geyser area on our way back from the Grand Tetons, but oh well.
We went back to try the Black Sand Basin area again and managed to snag a parking spot. We were done for the day and made it back to the RV about 2:30. So, a short day for sure, but we were spent. It was nice to have a quiet afternoon and evening as we were headed back on the road the next day. Over the 4 days we racked up close to 700 miles driving all over the park.
Off to Twin Falls, Idaho for 2 nights. We had a spot at the Rock Creek RV Park. It’s in a little canyon area. The road down is a bit narrow, but at least it’s one way in and another way out. It’s a pretty park with 25 RV sites. We got set-up and took a walk around that evening. You can walk over the bridge to the Rock Creek Park from the camping area. We ended up walking a little over 2 miles as we followed the path.
The next day was more low-key, but we did check-out a couple of things. We had seen Shoshone Falls when passing through the area on a past trip, so we skipped that. We instead drove out of town about 35 miles to check-out Balance Rock. It is a 48-foot, 40-ton rock that is sitting on pedestal 3 foot by 17 inches wide. It’s a quick hike up to it but is fairly steep with some loose rocks. As we were driving to the rock we passed Balance Rock Park. On our return, we drove in to the park to see what it was about. Really cute canyon area campground. Driving there you wouldn’t know any of this was there as all you can see for miles is flat farmland.
Left there and went to the Perrine Coulee waterfall. It’s a 200-foot waterfall in the Snake River Recreation Area that you can hike up to and walk behind the falls. Another quick hike up. Will hiked up but didn’t go behind the falls.
A good couple days in Twin Falls.