Three National Parks you didn’t know were day trips from Twin Falls, Idaho

Last Updated on September 10, 2023 by

Don’t kid yourself, if the title of this post was “Three National Parks you didn’t know were day trips from Heyburn, Idaho” you may have skipped right over it. That is also because you had never heard of Heyburn, Idaho until right now minutes ago. But you read that right kids, Heyburn, Idaho, which is about 40 minutes east of Twin Falls.
We were supposed to stay in another booming metropolis known as Arco, ID until the KOA called to let us know they had lost their electrical permit, sorry about our luck. A mad scramble at a rest stop in BF Utah netted us Heyburn, and boy were we surprised. We found ourselves in small park run by the town of Heyburn along the banks of the Snake River. Turns out, it was actually closer to three national parks than we would have been in Arco anyway. Bonus.
The park was also attached to an arboretum with a few miles of trails perfect for an evening stroll to walk off whatever we happened to get from Gossner’s Magic Valley Chalet, the most excellent creamery right across the street offering a variety of cheese and ice cream, but not together.

This state campground was a happy surprise. Especially after I had a mini heart attack when the KOA called to tell me, “Sorry, no soup for you”, less than an hour after we started our trek up to Idahoo. (If we have not already mentioned it, Shawn and I are traveling separately while he drives the RV and I drive the Ru. Thus, I had to call Shawn and break the news to him while he was driving the behemoth.) I cannot say enough good things about this park. And the camp hosts worked their magic to make sure that we could stay for our four full nights in the same spot. Praise Jesus! It was definitely a welcome respite after SLC with highs here in the mid 70s and lows of 50s, lovely gardens across the street and local creamery right next door. What more do you need?

Using either Twin Falls or Heyburn, there are three national park sites within 90 minutes. They are completely different sites in their focus, but each is certainly worth a half day visit or longer.

Minidoka Internment Camp National Historic Site

I was thoroughly underprepared for the visceral reaction I had to this place. While it has mostly returned to the earth, there is enough left standing to see how bleak it really was. It is literally in the middle of a couple thousand acres of sagebrush, with a small lonely river edging along one side to act as a barrier. The visitor’s center does an incredible job of detailing the history, and although there were some seriously left leaning definitions, once you understand the full scope of what happened, it’s hard to object. At less than 15, 000 visitors per year to the site, it is rapidly becoming a fading history, but if anyone wants to see what injustice really looks like, a stop here is all you ever need to know.

The only thing I can say about this stop is that I had no idea it would affect me like it did. I cannot even imagine what these immigrants to the west coast (and their legal children) must have thought after being ripped from their homes with only what they could carry. Followed up by a grueling train trip, and then a bumpy bus ride over dirt roads. Only to arrive in the middle of nowhere Idaho that was just dirt, dirt and more dirt. Except the river that was running on the other side of the barbed wire fence and guard towers which were the true barriers. No soup for them either. After all of that, they still decided to volunteer to serve fighting for the same government that did this to them. Below is the posted roll of the hundreds of interred US citizens that still decided to serve on our behalf. It was hard not to just stand there and read all of those names out loud.

Craters of the Moon National Monument

It’s hard to describe the scope and scale of this park, but it’s about 30 square miles of lava rock and bare minimal vegetation. The crater itself presents a short hike through a variety of different formations, you can see where the flow ran, the sharp lava rock thrown from the explosion, and the rounded lava smoothed from the magma. All in all, pretty cool and amazing to see that pine trees, wildflowers, and other shrubs and grasses have managed to cling to what little soil has blown into the nooks and crannies. There are also a few caves worth exploring, and the 40 degree temp is absolutely glorious after hiking out in 95 and no shade. Easily a full 8 hour day, if you include the four mile round trip hike to the top of the crater. It is possible to cheat the hike and approach from the other end for about a mile round trip, but don’t be that guy – the longer hike is worth the scenery.

This is definitely a park that you should get out and walk all of the short routes at the points of interest. You miss the point if you only get out and walk the parking lot, particularly at the Inferno Cone. It’s just a huge mound of volcanic rock practically ground down to Hawaiian beach sand almost without a stitch of vegetation, but the views of the entire valley from the top are tremendous. Another really odd thing to see while driving are the huge fields of dwarf buckwheat (small white flowers about 6 inches in diameter and 2 inches high) on the cinder planes. The contrast of black cinder and white flower for hundreds of acres is visually pretty incredible.

I have to admit, after driving through the front (west) entrance and seeing what appeared to be miles of black lava, I was pleasantly surprised by all the color in the landscape. The lava flows were filled with swirls and whirls, tubes and caves, lava bridges, huge craters, and best of all, we found a cinder bomb. We keep saying it, but it seems like every where we go we are pleasantly surprised by what we find.

On an unrelated side note, the drive out was 84 miles. Easily 75 of those 84 miles were contiguous farmland with only one town the width of a city block at about the halfway point. Get your head around that. That is like driving from Manhattan to Philadelphia without seeing anything but farms growing IDK what, (because I’m not a farmer), for as far as the eye can see. Once again reinforcing that during the zombie apocalypse, my skill will be providing shelter (and I’m an excellent shot). When it comes to feeding myself, if it doesn’t come from the grocery store, I am a lost cause.

I don’t know what more I can add. Other than, when the zombie apocalypse occurs, Shawn can shoot it and I can clean and cook it. As long as it’s something other than a zombie, I won’t let him starve. Team work!

City of Rocks National Reserve

This place was just funky. It’s a couple thousand acres that looks like giants had been randomly tossing ginormous boulders onto the plains. It’s visually stunning and you could spend days/weeks just wandering around the different formations. If you’re a real live camper, the sites are perfect. Remote, situated in pine and aspen groves, distant from each other, and commonly overlooking the cliffs and canyons of the rock formations. There is also world class rock climbing here with some 800 identified routes from ‘old fat guy’ capable to ‘you must be stupid’ capable. Not much more to be said than this is a wilderness lovers paradise.

By ‘real live camper’, he means tents or hammocks and coolers. Not what we are doing in our 42 foot home away from home. What we do is glamping. A couple steps above glamping. Should we just say leaps and bounds above glamping.

This park also happens to be along the California Emigrant Trail and has some interesting historical exhibits along the driving path if that’s your bag (It’s my kind of bag). Having been on the California Trail for many of it’s thousand miles, I continue to be amazed how we managed to settle the west. Unbelievably difficult conditions to hike with all of the convenience and advantage of modern amenities, much less bringing a wagon with supplies and children and hoping to find water along the way.

Back to the beginning of the day – we arrived at the visitors center to get a map (and pee) and there were a couple of hummingbird feeders right on the other side of the window. I have to admit, I just stood there for quite a while watching them. There was one particularly dominant female staking her territory over her brethren. Another day for happy surprises.

We weren’t expecting to do much hiking today as we were a little sore from the previous two days. But… then we got here. And I couldn’t help but turn into a small child who just wanted to climb on the rocks all day. God is good! And this IS the land of the beautiful. We also happened upon a couple of areas where the emigrants on the trail carved or signed their names to some of the rock formations. You just can’t help but stand and feel the past connecting with the present. And be overwhelmed by the sheer determination of our forefathers. Awesome!

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