From Boise to Stanley, Idaho - August 9

Today, August 9, we woke up in Boise, Idaho, to clear sunny skies and a desire to see what we could see.  I went to the airport and rented a car, picked up Rita at the hotel and headed southeast on Interstate 84.  The countryside was not scenic until we got to the town of Glenns Ferry and the Snake River.  At the town of Bliss we exited the Interstate and headed east on highway 26 to Gooding where we had views of farms and ranches with cattle, golden wheat fields and green, irrigated areas which we presumed were the famous Idaho potatoes.  We drove through Shoshone to Carey and then Craters of the Moon National Monument where we entered the park.  The landscape is barren black rock, strewn across a large area.  Experts think this happened last about 2000 years ago.  It reminded us of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park except that there are no active volcanoes here.  And the lava was not expelled from volcanoes but bubbled up from a 54 mile long rift.  Some think we are due for this to happen again sometime.  

We left the park and backtracked to the town of Carey where we took highway 75 north to the famous Sun Valley ski resort which is fast becoming a summer resort as well.  Developed in the 1930s by Averell Harriman, it is a beautiful area located next to the town of Ketchum, which Hemingway helped make famous.  We headed to the swank Sun Valley Lodge where we had a nice lunch at the outdoor restaurant called Gretchen’s.  We sat under shade watching ice skaters on an outdoor rink in temperatures in the 90s.  After lunch we drove into Ketchum, parked the car and walked the town streets for a while.  But not long as it was too hot.

We continued the beautiful drive into the Sawtooth Mountains crossing Galena Pass which is right at 9000 feet.  Soon we were at the headwaters of the Salmon River and we followed it into the town of Stanley where we had reservations for the night.  We checked into the Sawtooth Hotel, a rustic log cabin structure just like all the other buildings in Stanley.  The streets are gravel so it looks like an old Western movie set.  

While the Sawtooth Hotel may not measure up to the Sun Valley Lodge, the food is outstanding.  The staff is friendly too and could be described as foodie-hippies.  For such a remote place a lot of eccentric people showed up to eat on a weekday night.  Rita had a nice bowl of minestrone soup and a quinoa salad.  I had a delicious rainbow trout with veggies.  We had nice glasses of wine and a lemon icebox cake for dessert.  Yummy!

Now we hear that the road to Lowman, which we planned to take in the morning, is closed due to forest fires.  It may be opened up in the morning or it may not.  If not we’ll make a longer drive tomorrow than we planned on.