Travel Blog

The Splendor of the Sawtooth

Yesterday, I shared some observations on the lovely town of Ketchum near Sun Valley, Idaho. Before I flew back to Washington, I had one adventure remaining. My new friends, Jenny Dupre and Brandon Kuvara, decided to take me on a snowmobile expedition to Redfish lake in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. It was my first snowmobile experience and it will be hard to forget. As a lifelong hiker and backpacker, I am used to encountering nature on foot.  The snowmobile allowed us to cover a huge amount of territory in a long excursion.

Jenny and Brandon are both old hands on snowmobiles, which go with living in this remote area.  While Jenny is from Louisiana, she is totally comfortable in this snow-covered environment. She has raised a bunch of kids to respect the outdoors, including camping experiences where they found themselves overrun by black bears. Having lived in Louisiana, I was not surprised by her toughness, but I was impressed by her acquired winter skills.

Brandon is the owner of Whiskey on Main in Ketchum, a must-go-to spot for great food, drinks, and entertainment. For a businessman who works from Nashville to Ketchum, Brandon is still prototypical of the Idahoan. With his ultra-cool bar and good-at-everything ease, I really should hate the guy. However, he is the most self-effacing and engaging person you will ever hope to meet. All I can say is, if you find yourself in the Sawtooth in winter, call Brandon.

Named for its ragged tooth-like peaks, Sawtooth Mountain range goes up 10,751 feet (3,277 m) at the summit of Thompson Peak. It encompasses an area of 678 square miles and the air gets a bit thin for those of us from the East. It is a range formed from glaciers and still has considerable seismic activity due to the Sawtooth Fault near Redfish lake. (I had dinner with another couple of new friends on this trip who lived not far from the base of the mountains and reported having to deal with moving furniture and pictures from the earthquakes).

The melting of the alpine glaciers left roughly 400 mountain lakes in the Sawtooth, making this a hiker’s delight. It is also near the Rocky Mountains so it is as close to Nirvana for backpackers as you can get.

We started out, as with most adventures in Sun Valley, with a hearty Western breakfast. We went to the Kneadery, which is ultimate breakfast spot. For those of us who love breakfasts, the Kneadery is the ultimate experience. It serves up heaping plates of stick-too-your-ribs meals in a quintessentially Idahoan atmosphere. They had to drag me out of the place.

We then drove about an hour to an outfitter who supplied the snowmobiles, winter clothing, and directions. We thought we had a guide set up, but we learned that we would have to do the excursion with the help of a satellite phone and map. Fortunately, we had Brandon.  He kept us on course while both he and Jenny kept a close eye on the novice who just the day before was laid low by a ski lift. (Jenny seemed to be looking back as much as forward to be sure that I did not fly off the mountain or take a header into a snowbank).

It was very cold and began to snow but the rental pants and jacket were impenetrable. I actually had to zip down my jacket because I was getting too warm despite the cold temperatures. You need to bring sunglasses to avoid snow blindness and a good pair of gloves (I purchased a pair from the outfitter that I can use if Washington is it is ever plunged into a polar vortex). It took me a while to feel comfortable on the snowmobile. We were covering a long distance so we were moving at a speed of 35-45 mph at points. As we went along drops and riverbanks, I was thinking that this is no place for a torts teacher.

Redfish Lake is great with the towering mountains of the Sawtooth around it. It gets its name for sockeye salmon you can find in the area. It is a favorite place for locals in the summer, though the temperature of the water remains very cold all year round. The warmest it will get is 60 degrees on a hot summer season. In the summer, there is a small lodge where you can get food and there are a few rooms available but you have to book months in advance.

The lake was entirely frozen when we got there after a few hours of cross-country snowmobiling.

Brandon got us back safe and sound.  I will forever have a different impression of “Let’s Go Brandon” after he located the outfitter’s shack at the end of the day.

As you might expect, the views were overwhelming. Since it was snowing, the full view of the distant mountains was obscured. However, I felt the snowy conditions made it even more magical. Here are a few pictures.

It was a wonderful way to end my stay in Sun Valley.

This is truly a unique place filled with people who could not be nicer.  What is most impressive is how everyone stays active in the outdoors from hiking to skiing to fishing. It is part of everyone’s routine. Every person you meet is helpful and happy.

Coming from the East, the most notable difference is the absence of visual neurosis and angst. I love Washington and living on the East coast. Yet, there is a different pace and perspective here. Perhaps it is the close association with the surrounding natural conditions. People just seem more centered and, again, happy. There is no bragging or bravado, just a confidence and eagerness about people here. It is just fun to be around them.

There is also a certain quiet toughness to Idahoans. I particularly enjoyed my conversations with Royce who works at the Limelight Hotel about growing up here skiing and backpacking. He has his own adventures in the wilderness that he matter-of-factly recounted. Royce showed that ability to live in the moment; to appreciate how lucky he is to have grown up in this unique place. He is working to put himself through school and still enjoying every moment on the slopes and the trails.

It is hard to leave Sun Valley, even after the demeaning face plant on Bald Mountain. However, it is time to plunge again into my own unique ecosystem of the Beltway.  We have our own predators and hazards, of course. Yet, I cannot say we have the same sense of tranquility and satisfaction. If my new Idahoan friends visit me in Washington, I can show them how to evade lobbyists and look for the telltale signs of trolls and muckrakers. However, what we have in Washington, they do not need in Idaho.

I cannot recommend a visit to Sun Valley more highly to our blog family. Summer or winter, this place will reorient and replenish the most tired traveler.

24 thoughts on “The Splendor of the Sawtooth”

  2. Mr Turley

    May I suggest you try that again but this time on a dog sled. I did this for the first time a while ago in Alaska, a lasting memory. No engine noise, the countryside flashing past, not unlike skiing in a sedan chair. Best of all the dogs really love it.

  3. I’m glad you got to enjoy Idaho before it is changed by the Californians who are fleeing their state in large numbers, stage east. Maybe Governor Newsome’s exit tax will slow the Eastward Ho! migrants long enough for me to visit original ID
    too.

  5. Thank you for sharing a wonderful personal experience with us. My wife and I live in the SE AZ Mountains but have a soft spot for Idaho and Montana and lapped up your adventure with enthusiasm.

  6. “If my new Idahoan friends visit me in Washington, I can show them how to evade lobbyists and look for the telltale signs of trolls and muckrakers.”

    Ha! A great line! Love your light-hearted travelogues and photos. Thank you for sharing your journeys with us. Always a pleasure to vicariously enjoy your excursions! Happy Easter and Passover!

  7. Hahaha … in a few months you will be dreaming about this trip … bet you will be back before you know it!

    1. Meh, that’s a ruse to protect our western border from antifa and the east from the mayor of Baltimore

  10. As a north Idahoan,I read your analysis of legal issues all the time. Thank you for that. But I must say that your discriminating eye captures not only the character of the area and its inhabitants but also the wonderful views, and you preserve and share them with us, for which I am grateful.

    Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday.

  11. I always enjoy Professor Turley’s posts when he is out of Washington, D.C. His accounts (especially the pictures) are always good reading. The good professor is quite the amateur photographer. I’ve seen many of his pictures and it appears he has a special fondness for lakes, rivers, and streams to photograph. (Especially when they are in remote places.) I’m sorry to hear that such a memorable trip is met with the miserable realization that it’s back to work in D.C.

  12. Enjoyed reading your account of visiting Idaho and the Sawtooth. I have been there many times. I love the Sawtooth so aptly named for their jagged peaks. The sockeye used to spawn in Redfish Lake is such great numbers that the lake was rimmed in red from their bright red color, as the story goes. The sockeye arrived at the lake after their 900-mile journey up the Columbia and Salmon Rivers, a passage that is now mostly blocked by dams. A paltry few still make it into the lake.

    I prefer Stanley and Salmon to Ketchum, which are a bit lower on the economic scale. Don’t be surprised to find your drive to Salmon from Stanley interrupted by a cattle driver though downtown Challis as the ranchers move their herd into the high country to graze in the summer. I laughed watching the steers stop at the Forest Service office to graze on their robust lawn. I doubt they had a permit for that.

    A paddling trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon in the summer is a special experience. Before I aged out, I used to take outfitted trips and whitewater kayak the Middle Fork. Great food and adventure with superb guides permitted by the Forest Service. If you can’t kayak, and you need to be pretty good to do that river, you can raft.

    The other great summer experience is a horsepack trip into the wilderness. My daughter is an equine veterinarian because she fell in love with horses and mules while on one of those trips in the Bridger Teton (WY) when she was 8 years old. We were an outdoor family, so it was natural for her to be in the wilderness at that age. These experiences change lives for the better as Jonathan observed.

  14. Jonathon, I enjoyed the pictures and description of your trip. Thanks very much for sharing.

  18. When I got married 35 years ago we did a road trip from Montana into Idaho and the glories of the Sawtooth Range— and spent our first night of married life at Redfish Lake Lodge—– not much snow around in early September though. Later I became a pilot and was fortunate to own a tailwheel, back-country airplane and ofter stopped at the Smiley Creek Airport—-grass strip— for overnight campling. Fun times all.

  20. As a flyover resident, a local, in a small town (~1600 souls) considered a vacation destination and desirable community to which city folks wish to relocate and retire… please don’t move there.

    Houses are now unaffordable (for the locals) and our small town character lost to (literally) hordes of city people. Roads are clogged with traffic and being widened to accommodate all the “newcomers” who’ve begun showing up city at council meetings demanding additional services and infrastructure “just like back home”.

    Often we hear our new neighbors complain about nearby family farms (smelly things aren’t they) which are being lost to big-time developers at an ever accelerating pace. Not to mention our neighborhoods’ quality of life being degraded by absentee landlords snapping up properties for AirBnB and Verbo rentals — walks down our tree-lined street reinforce the belief that we’ve become strangers in our own neighborhood.

    Besides, you’ll miss your kids and grandchildren… and constantly tell us so, while complaining about how they never (or rarely) visit.

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