Our first morning in Sun Valley was rather appropriately spent in a sunny valley. We hiked through the Colorado Gulch just outside Hailey and into a grove of Aspen trees which feature arborglyphs: a unique form of graffiti left by Basque shepherds during their lonely days spent on the hills.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Along with the entire town of Ketchum, we were waiting on Main Street for a parade which was thirty minutes late. Just as I was starting to feel the first pangs of boredom: they were there. Thousands of sheep running, sprinting down the street, bleating and panicked and jumping over each other, trying to escape through the crowd, getting reined in by barking dogs, cheered on by screaming kids, and blessed with holy water by a courageous preacher standing his ground in the middle of the street. And then it was over.
We had done whitewater rafting, zip lining, mountain biking and a whole lot of hiking -- but there was still one more outdoor activity we wanted to try: horseback riding. And we couldn't have chosen a better place to knock it off our list than in the Sawtooth Mountains around Redfish Lake.
With a year-round population of just 63, tiny Stanley has an out-sized reputation. Geographically, it's in the center of Idaho, and it serves as a jumping-off point for adventures in the Sawtooth Mountains, which form one of the state's most emblematic landscapes.
Driving along the Salmon River Scenic Byway, we entered the Land of the Yankee Fork: a state park which stretches out to the south of Challis, dedicated to the mining history of the area. There are three ghost towns in the park, and we decided to make a stop at Bayhorse.
The best hidden gem we uncovered during our travels through Idaho was the Goldbug Hot Springs. Found at the end of a beautiful and moderately-rough hike through a canyon just south of Salmon, these cascading hot springs offer an idyllic experience, far off the beaten track.
Idaho has no lack of scenic byways. There are 30 which criss-cross the state, and during our six-week road-trip through Idaho, we made an effort to complete as many as possible. Each had something recommend it, from historical sites, to crazy geological formations or interesting towns. But for amazing scenery, none beats the Salmon River Scenic Byway.
For the 70 miles between Lowell and Powell, Highway 12 cuts through the Clearwater National Forest: a beautiful stretch of driving, but one without any towns, services or other people. The only time we got out of the car was to visit Colgate Licks: an open glade in the forest whose sodium-rich rocks attract wildlife of the licking sort.
Throughout history, most civilizations have had a legend to explain the origins of life. Whether it's Adam and Eve, the romantic dalliances of Zeus, or the sun god Inti rising from the depths of Lake Titicaca, humans seem to have an innate need to explain our presence on earth. And the Nez Perce are no different. Their creation legend is a bit more colorful than most, and occurred at a geological formation they called The Heart of the Monster.
I recently came across a good method for discovering which stereotypes and questions exist about a certain place: just allow Google to auto-complete the phrase, "Why is [place] so _____?" I've discovered that people tend to wonder why Ohio is so important, why South Korea is so weird, and why Georgia is so humid. And the number one question for our current home: "Why is Idaho so... conservative?"
