Twin Falls... What Could Have Been

On my way from Boise to Yellowstone, I stopped in Twin Falls, ID. I wasn't expecting much from Twin Falls, let alone a major geological site. So as I drove across a bridge that came out of nowhere over a canyon and river, I sat up.

And took pictures.
















Cool huh?

Well, here's the thing. This was my first impression of Twin Falls - I saw it as a quaint little Idaho city with cool geography. But it just went downhill from there.

There was a short walk along the rim of the canyon that I took to an overlook point. The first two pictures are the view from the overlook of the river. The third picture is looking back to Twin Falls from the overlook spot.



















And therein lies the problem. Twin Falls is actually the second largest city in Idaho and has a population of about 41,000 people, but the majority of its stores are chains - Best Buy, TJ Maxx, Olive Garden, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Applebees, Old Navy, Office Depot. I'm not going to get all holier than thou - I shop at these stores, what struck me is that aside from the amazing canyon, Twin Falls seemed to lack any local flavor. Not only that, these large box stores were overlooking the canyon. And it didn't need to be this way.