Idaho Sun Valley

Sun Valley was invented: literally. In 1935, W. Averell Harriman, chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, sent an Austrian count named Felix Schaffgotsch to scout the American West for a location to build a European-style ski resort that would fill empty train cars in winter. Schaffgotsch rejected location after location until he reached a broad valley below a mountain called Bald in the Sawtooth foothills of central Idaho. He telegraphed Harriman: “I believe I have found your valley.” The resort opened in 1936, invented the ski chairlift (previously, skiers used rope tows or hiked), and has been one of America’s defining mountain destinations ever since.

Sun Valley’s accommodation landscape reflects its unusual history as a planned destination rather than an evolved community. The Sun Valley Inn and Lodge, the original resort structures from the 1930s, have been continually refined and retain a specific historical character, the Lodge dining room, the skating rink where Sonja Henie performed, the outdoor heated pool that operates even in deepest January. Beyond the resort campus, Ketchum’s stock of independent hotels, luxury rental homes, and small lodges provides a more local character. The surrounding landscape, the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, the Big Wood River corridor, and the Pioneer Mountains, offers backcountry lodge accommodation accessible by snowmobile in winter and by foot or horse in summer.

Baldy, as locals know it, is among the finest ski mountains in the American West. Its 3,400 feet of continuous vertical drop (matched only by Jackson Hole and Big Sky in the Rocky Mountain region), the lack of beginner terrain at the mountain’s base (which keeps crowd density low), and the consistent quality of its grooming and snow management have given it a reputation for serious skiing without the social circus of larger resorts. The Exhibition and Limelight runs are classics; the upper bowls catch first tracks through steep terrain with panoramic views of the Pioneer and Sawtooth ranges.

Ernest Hemingway came to Sun Valley in 1939, and returned to Ketchum repeatedly until his death there in 1961. He came for the elk hunting in the fall and the fishing, but it is Silver Creek, 30 miles south of Ketchum, that would have kept him here indefinitely. Silver Creek is a spring creek, fed by underground springs, maintaining 52°F water year-round, growing exceptional aquatic insect life, and producing brown and rainbow trout of extraordinary size and selectivity. The Nature Conservancy acquired the Preserve in 1976; it is fished with barbless hooks, catch-and-release only, and fly fishing only, producing as close to a perfect trout stream experience as North America offers.

The Sawtooth National Recreation Area, 30 minutes north of Sun Valley on Highway 75, is one of the American West’s most spectacular mountain landscapes, a jagged granite range rising above 60 alpine lakes in a wilderness area of 756,000 acres. The Sawtooth peaks are technical climbs; the lakes are accessible by trail and offer some of Idaho’s finest backcountry camping. Redfish Lake, the largest lake in the SNRA, has a lodge and visitor infrastructure; the surrounding trails lead into serious wilderness within an hour’s walk. The Stanley Basin at the foot of the Sawtooth is one of the coldest inhabited places in the contiguous United States (-54°F has been recorded) and one of the most dramatically beautiful.

Sun Valley’s summer identity has strengthened dramatically as the resort and surrounding businesses have invested in the shoulder season. The Sun Valley Summer Symphony, the Trailing of the Sheep Festival, and the multiple mountain biking trail systems have created a genuinely full summer calendar. The Harriman Trail, a 30-mile paved pathway through the Wood River Valley, connects Ketchum to Bellevue through meadows with Pioneer Mountain views, one of the finest urban-to-wilderness cycling corridors in the American West.