August 2007.............

Sun Valley: In 1939 the ski resort was opened, as as they say "the rest is history". The village is very upscale, we were walking past a "sidewalk sale", there was a skirt that Laurel liked, the price tag was $600.( Guess the skirt is still there). The red horse pictured below is an example of the type of items one can purchase. The Opera House, pictured on the right below has first run movies, and Tuesday to Friday at 5PM it shows the old movie Sun Valley Serenade, starring Sonya Henie. It is pretty much the story of Sun Valley, and it's free.

August 2007.............

Historic Boulder City: A fifty acre parcel of land was donated to the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in 2004, and on this piece of land is Boulder City. It is located north of Ketchum, and is a rugged and steep six-mile track from Highway 75 up Boulder Creek to the Basin. The city once had a store, hotel. post office, corral, saloon, cabins, an ore processing mill and various other mining structures. Today Boulder City is a ghost town that contains the remains of the mill, four cabins and some other buildings. The elevation starts at 6,800 ft. and the town is over 10,000 feet. We were able to drive a four-wheel drive vehicle for the first three miles, then the creek bed became to rough to navigate, so the hike began. It took another three hours to reach the town. When we got there it started to rain and snow. It took us an hour and a half to make our way back down the mountain to the CRV (Yes, the CRV did great), and when we were on the trail driving down we looked over to the horizon and the smoke was billowing from the forest fires. At that point we didn't know which side of the highway it was on, there were a few tense moments. Back at the highway we learned it was on the other side of the road, that side was being evacuated, but we could get back to the RV park. The hike was great, but be sure and take warm clothes and rain gear, as well as food and water, when you go that high into the mountains. You probably don't want to attempt it if you aren't use to hiking and in pretty good shape.

August 2007.............

Stanley: When we left Ketchum we went up over Gelina Pass, and down into the Sawtooth Valley, to the tiny town of Stanley. We read someplace that the population is 71. The town is surrounded by three National Forests, a National Recreation area and a wilderness area. All three routes in are National Scenic By-Ways. It lies on the upper Salmon River, in a wide open part of the valley, known as the Stanley Basin. The residents claim Stanley is the coldest place in the US, we have always heard that was International Falls, Minnesota, but we weren't going to argue. The town has wide unpaved streets, was founded in 1890 and is one of the few gold era towns remaining. We hiked up into the mountains to the beginning of the Salmon River, and stood over it. The Salmon River winds across 420 miles of Idaho before flowing into the Snake. It was discovered in 1805 by Lewis and Clark. Until 1950 boats could not ascend the main canyon so the Salmon got it's name "The river of no return". The RV park where we stayed had six sites, and a beautiful view. Everyplace there has a beautiful view of the Sawtooth Mountains. Stanley is a place we will go back to, hopefully to spend a few weeks.

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