Welcome to Idaho Power’s Powercache Challenge!
All of our powercaches are located on Idaho Power land, so feel free to explore while you’re here. We ask only that you leave these sites as you find them, with no trace of your visit, so others can share the fun and excitement of discovery.
To learn more about the Idaho Powercache Challenge, visit idahopower.com/geocache, where you'll find detailed instructions on how to download your individual passport and place electronic stamps from the caches you find in your Idaho Powercache Passport. Each powercache site contains a unique code to unlock access for an electronic passport stamp.
Find each powercache, collect the 12 stamps, solve the word challenge phrase and collect your prize!
How Much Do You Know About Clean, Renewable Hydropower?
Did you realize?
- In the Pacific Northwest, the force of falling water takes an unpredictable resource – rainfall and snowpack – and turns it into a reliable source of electricity called hydropower.
- Each year the hydrologic cycle brings water to our rivers and more than 370 hydroelectric projects nationwide. They generate more than 30,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to meet the annual power needs of millions of homes.
- Idaho, Oregon and Washington are three of the five states with the lowest carbon dioxide emission rates, making our carbon footprint among the smallest in the country.
- Living in this region means you pay, on average, 20 percent less for electricity than the rest of the nation.
- Hydropower produces about two-thirds of the Pacific Northwest’s electricity every year.
- Hydroelectric power plants do not use up limited non-renewable resources to make electricity.
- They do not cause pollution of air, land or water.
- They have low failure rates, low operating costs and are reliable.
- Reservoirs have scenic and recreation value for campers, anglers and water sports enthusiasts.
- The water is a home for fish and wildlife as well.
- Dams add to domestic water supplies, control water quality, provide irrigation for agriculture, and prevent flooding.
Idaho Power’s Hydroelectric System
At Idaho Power we work hard every day to bring energy to your door. We do it safely and proudly by planning for the future, caring for the environment, today and every day.
The bulk of our power generating ability comes from our 17 hydroelectric power plants along the Snake River and its tributaries. We are proud to be one of the nation’s few investor-owned utilities with a significant hydroelectric generating base.
Our nearly 100-year history is based on using clean, renewable generation resources like our hydroelectric plants that have little if any greenhouse gas emissions. To this end, we promote energy efficiency and encourage our customers to make wise and efficient use of all resources, including electricity.
Can you Imagine...
… an ice-age lake the size of Lake Michigan that released a volume of floodwater six times the flood flow of the Mississippi River that scoured the Snake River Canyon from Utah to the Columbia River? The lake and its incredible flow were not imaginary – geologists know this event – the Bonneville Flood -- was very real. Geologic processes millions of years ago created an immense basin that dominated the landscape of what is now western Utah. Lake Bonneville formed in this basin at least 600,000 years ago. As the climate became cooler and wetter, Lake Bonneville gradually expanded over a surface area of about 20,000 square miles that overlapped into modern-day Nevada and Idaho. Because Lake Bonneville existed in a basin, there was no outlet – it was just a huge encapsulated lake. Water from rainfall, stream flows and glacial melting all remained in the lake, all but what evaporated. At its highest, the lake level was 5,090 feet in elevation – nearly 1,000 feet higher than the current level of its remnant – the Great Salt Lake.
An estimated 14,500 years ago, the lake overfilled and unleashed a torrent of flood waters through an area known as Red Rock Pass in southeastern Idaho – more than 400 miles from where you are today. The floodwater followed the route of the Snake River and its existing canyons, and then veered north into Hells Canyon, eventually entering the Columbia River and flowing all the way to the Pacific Ocean – 798 miles from where it began. The flood scoured the walls and bed of the Snake River and cut deep recesses in the canyon walls, gouged holes in the canyon floor creating waterfalls, alcoves and gravel bars. In Hells Canyon, the floodwaters left gravel bars where the river bends more than 100 feet above today’s river level. Deposits of sand and gravel partially blocked side valleys before the deluge poured into the Clearwater River at Lewiston, Idaho, and temporarily reversed its flow for several miles.
Lake Bonneville was named for Benjamin L.E. Bonneville, a French-born U.S. Army officer, who in the 1830s was involved in exploring and trading ventures in the Pacific Northwest. Geologist G.K. Gilbert was the first to study these prehistoric lake features, and he decided to honor Captain Bonneville in this way.