Shoshone Falls
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Shoshone Falls is a waterfall on the Snake River located approximately five miles east of Twin Falls, Idaho. Sometimes called the "Niagara of the West," Shoshone Falls is 212 feet (64.7 meters) high--36 feet (10.97 meters) higher than Niagara Falls-- and flows over a rim 900 feet (274 meters) wide.

A park overlooking the waterfall is owned and operated by the City of Twin Falls. Shoshone Falls is best viewed in the spring as irrigation of the Snake River often significantly diminishes water levels in the summer and fall.

Shoshone Falls has existed for 30,000 to 60,000 years. It is a total barrier to the upstream movement of fish. The falls was the upper limit of sturgeon, and spawning runs of salmon and steelhead could not pass the falls. Yellowstone cutthroat trout lived above the falls in the same ecological niche as Rainbow Trout below it. Due to this marked difference, the World Wide Fund for Nature used Shoshone Falls as the boundary between the Upper Snake and the Columbia Unglaciated freshwater ecoregions.


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