Bob and Pam Nodine: Ketchum Idaho, Sun Valley, and the Sawtooth Scenic Byway

We left Seattle on July 6 and arrived in Ketchum, Idaho on July 7, stopping for the night in La Grande, Oregon. We left Ketchum July 10 and are currently in West Yellowstone, Montana. We are getting a little behind with the blog but there are so many things to do it is hard to find the time.

Ketchum is famous for its ski slopes and Bald mountain is said to have a perfect pitch. It is the best single ski mountain in the US. The world's first chairlift was built at Sun Valley in 1936. The average snowfall in Sun Valley/Ketchum is 150 to 200 inches while Idaho's statewide average is only 29.5 inches. Of course it is summer now and we came here for the Sawtooth National Forest, the Craters of the Moon National Monument, and the spectacular scenery. The Sawtooth National Recreation Area has four mountain ranges with 40 peaks of 10,000 feet or higher. The scenery is drop dead gorgeous as you drive along the Sawtooth Scenic Byway (Idaho Highway 75). On the darker side, Ketchum is the place where Ernest Hemingway committed suicide and his grave is in the Ketchum Cemetery. Visitors leave him bottles of various alcoholic beverages which he often indulged in. Also there are many coins on his grave.

Hemingway's grave

Along the Sawtooth Scenic Byway is the Galena Summit topping out at 8701 feet. We pulled off at the summit and I climbed up the hill above the road.

Our GPS says 8703

The summit on Highway 75 - the hill on the right I climed

Looking back down at Pam

Looking north in the direction we are headed

Just down the road was a dirt trail going even higher up the mountain so we did a little 4-wheel drive adventure. The GPS indicated the road continued back down the mountain in the direction we had just come from. There was a spur heading to the top but we choose not to continue on up. What we found at the location where we stopped was a weather station complete with a snowfall measurement pad.

We did not take the spur

We stopped here

The weather station - snowfall pad in the lower left

A few miles further north was an overlook with a commanding view of the Sawtooth Mountains.

Sawtooth Mountains

We decided to turn around in Stanley Idaho and return to Ketchum. The next photo is of the Salmon River at a pullout in Stanley. As I write this it occurs to me that we did not take any photos while driving up the valley. That is unfortunate because the view was terrific with mountains and green meadows on each side of the road. There were many campgrounds along the river and at lakes where fisherman and off-roaders were camped to participate in outdoor activities.

Salmon River in Stanley Idaho

There is an organization known as Rails to Trails with the mission of turning old railroad beds into walking and biking paths. The old railroad into Ketchum is now a paved trail with a tunnel under the busy Highway 75. The campground we stayed at is next to the trail and we took the bikes for a spin. We give this trail a big number ten and enjoyed riding along surrounded by endless scenery.

Sailing down the bike trail near the campground

In many places the trail is bordered by aspens. The center line in the photo below is only present on the ingress/egress of the tunnel going under Highway 75 and brings the rider's attention to two way traffic in the tunnel.