USA Guide
The Rockies
The Sawtooth Mountains
North of Ketchum and Sun Valley, Hwy-75 climbs through rising tracts of forests and mountains to top out after twenty miles at the spectacular panorama of Galena Summit. Spreading out far below, the meadows of the Sawtooth Valley stretch northward. The simple road meanders beside the young Salmon River, whose headwaters rise in the forbidding icy peaks to the south, as the serrated ridge of the Sawtooth Mountains forms an impenetrable barrier along the western horizon. Backpackers are guaranteed solitude in these climes, dotted with some five hundred remote alpine lakes – pick up details of camping sites and hiking trails at the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters, eight miles north of Ketchum (daily 8.30am–5pm; 
208-727-5000, 
www.fs.fed.us/r4/sawtooth ). Fly-fishing for brown trout, steelhead, and salmon is a popular pastime here as well.
At tiny STANLEY, a few miles north, dirt roads radiating from the junction of Hwy-75 and Hwy-21 have assorted motels, the better of which include the Western-flavoured Valley Creek Motel ( 208/774-3606, www.stanleyidaho.com ; Price: $76-100), whose nice rooms have kitchenettes and wi-fi; and the large, cozy Mountain Village Lodge ( 208/774-3661, www.mountainvillage.com ; Price: $76-100), which has sixty comfortably furnished rooms with fridges and microwaves and a natural hot-springs spa. In summer, Stanley's main activity is organizing rafting trips. Operators include The River Company ( 208/788-5775, www.therivercompany.com ), which charges $71–91.
Twelve miles west of Stanley at the town of Sunbeam, you begin the 45-mile scenic drive that leads into the historic settings preserved at the Land of the Yankee Fork State Park, whose interpretive center (summer daily 9am-5pm; free; 208/879-5244) at the park's eastern junction, near Challis at the intersection of highways 75 and 93, gives you the opportunity to try your luck panning gold. Along the route you can explore the preserved ghost towns of Custer and Bonanza, the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge, a 112-foot, nearly thousand-ton barge that mined gold from stream gravel, and the Custer Motorway (also known as Forest Road 070), an old, rustic toll road, curving northwest away from Hwy-75, with numerous historic attractions and rugged trails leading off from it. Camping, rafting, fishing, and cross-country skiing are good options in this remote wilderness.