Ketchum/Sun Valley

I had read an article in a travel magazine about 'America's Alps' located in Idaho.

This article went into our bucket list as a place to visit.

Ketchum began as a silver mining town in 1880. It was once a sheep herding mecca. In 1920 Ketchum was second in worldwide sheep exports only to Sydney, Australia. Skiing first came to Ketchum out of necessity for miners, sheepherders and townsfolk as winter transportation.  In 1936 Sun Valley became a winter resort destination for the rich and famous.

With a little driving on secondary roads Ketchum was sorta on our way home. So we headed across Oregon on a secondary road headed towards Ketchum. Idaho.We drove through farmland that grew onions...

I found this so interesting as I have never seen onions grown in such big quanities and the air was actually quite yummy smelling! (I guess if you like onions!)

Once we got to Ketchum we found that the bike trails that the article talked about were every bikers dream. 40 miles of paved biking! It was great!

The town of Ketchum was your regular mountain ski town. We found the town slower than other mountain ski towns we have visited. After our 4 mile bike ride (there is only 1 rv park in this area that has hook-ups) to Ketchum we visited a local coffee bar before we headed back.

The following day we headed into Sun Valley which is a separate town right beside Ketchum. We took a bike path thru sub divisions with beautiful homes! If your looking for a summer cottage and have an extra million laying around you may be able to find a small cottage in this area!

view along the bike trail

There are many places to ski in this area. We past the Dollar ski area one of the earliest ski hills.

Then we arrived in Sun Valley...

Sun Valley Symphony multi -million dollar outdoor pavilion

Street in Sun Valley Resort

Sun Valley Resort

The Sun Valley Lodge walls are lined with photographs of every VIP imaginable who has visited the ski slopes of Sun Valley. At the back of the Lodge there is the Gretchen's Family  Restaurant that has an outside patio that faces their outside Skating Rink! (This is July, is it just me or have you heard of an outside skating rink in the summer?) We had to have lunch there...you can eat on a patio outside any time...but not often by a skating rink! The rink is open to the public for public skating. In the summer months every Saturday evening you can watch Olympic champions and World Class Skaters perform.

 The food was reasonably priced... you had you choice of butter, apricot butter or jalopeno butter for you buns.

 The portions where huge (thank goodness we biked 30 km today?)

We headed on back to our RV park...

Ketchum/Sun Valley trip was definitely worth it! We may never visit this area again...but if you enjoy biking and camping this is a relaxing spot to visit! Plus you have the bonus of cute towns to visit, good entertainment if you want and lots of places to enjoy a cup of jo!
Can't forget their fishing here too..right along the bike paths!

So tomorrow we press on north!