Sawtooth Mountains and Idaho
On Friday, July 2, 2021, we left Stanley and the Salmon River. We drove west and explored several viewpoints in the Sawtooth Mountains. First, we drove east on ID 21 and got nice views of the mountains. Next, we went to Stanley
Lake, after which we turned around and drove back toward
Stanley. We saw a herd of elk at one of the scenic turnouts.
Once we got back to town, we turned south on ID 75 and
visited Redfish Lake.
We then drove on the Sawtooth Scenic Byway towards Sun Valley.
We got our wish for sunny skies. This is the view from our cabin before we left Stanley.
Lake Stanley
One last photo of the Sawtooth Mountains.
As we drove south, we went up over the Galena Summit with a nice overlook. The road next took us to the resort town of Ketchum (right next to Sun Valley) which was buzzing with a little too much activity. So after about a half hour, we moved on and had lunch in the next town, Hailey. We soon descended into a much drier landscape as we approached Shoshone and Idaho’s Snake River Valley. It was getting quite hot again, the story of this trip.
After lunch, we drove west to Malad Gorge, one of the Thousand Springs state parks.
The view from Galena Summit
Malad Gorge
We also visited a second state park, Niagara Springs, before heading to Twin Falls for the night.
The next day, Saturday, July 3, 2021, we left Twin Falls and headed west on I-84 toward Mountain Home. From there we took a gravel road (about 19 miles) where we saw literally no other cars, but we did see signs to beware the Saylor Creek Bombing Range! This route took us to the Bruneau Canyon Overlook, 800 feet above the Bruneau River. Afterward, we retraced our steps to Highway 51, and then drove to Boise for lunch.
From Boise, we drove for more than 4 hours on US-95 through a virtually empty corner of Oregon to Nevada, to spend the night in Winnemucca. There was a small settlement at the state line between Oregon and Nevada (McDermitt, and it had really only a gas station and, of course, a casino).
The next day, Independence Day, we drove home from Winnemucca on I–80 (about 6 hours), completing the drive and putting 4,672 miles on our car. This doesn’t count the miles riding our friend’s car.
Despite the heat (and COVID limitations), we traveled through parts of eight states, saw some beautiful sights and discovered some (to us previously) unknown parks in the Intermountain West of the United States.
