Let me tell you about my trip to Idaho!
 

WHO WE ARE: Four adult couples who travel together about once every two years to enjoy the outdoors.

WHERE WE STAYED:I have posted reports on trip advisor about the two hotels at which we stayed.
The Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch-south of Stanley
http://tinyurl.com/nwok2
I just can't stop gushing over IRMR, it was such a terrific experience. From drinking lemonade on the front porch, watching the eagles fly over the Sawtooths, reading in front of the fire in the cabin, seeing the full moon rise while lounging in the hot springs pool, it was the ideal place to be.

The Inn at Ellsworth Estate-Hailey
http://tinyurl.com/rpluu
This was so much nicer than a chain would have been. Add a gourmet breakfast and a chance to meet Elsa, the owner's Bernese Mountain Dog, it was special!

WHERE WE ATE:
We arrived on different flights from the East coast and opted to spend our first night in Hailey. After a few cold beers on the front porch of the Inn at Ellsworth Estate we walked down Main St to CK's Fine Foods for dinner. It was simply one of the best casual restaurants I have ever visited. The food was fresh and delicious. (Tiff, think Angry Trout) Although we enjoyed excellent mains(incredible wild salmon) and salads, all of us raved about the bread and the sorbets.
The next morning some of us were still on EDST so we walked in town to the Hailey Coffee Shop for some excellent coffee. They also had first class pastries which we had to sample. About nine Steve, the innkeeper, served a very good breakfast of fruit, eggs benedict over smoked trout and strawberry cream cheese french toast. We waddled out to begin our adventure.

Before heading north to Stanley, we stopped at Albertson's and stocked up on fruit, beer, wine and some basic hiking munchies. We bought a small styrofoam cooler which came in handy. We took the road over Galena Summit which is blessed with spectacular scenery. We stopped at Smiley's Creek for the much ballyhooed milkshakes (although they were delicious, we came to regret our excesses when we found out how fabulous desserts at Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch are!)

Our breakfasts and dinners were included in the room rate at the IRMR. The food was very good. They have a new chef who is imaginative. His meals exceeded all our expectations. The pastry chef also wowed us with her lemon meringue pie, an incredible chocolate apricot torte....oh dear, the list does go on. A brief note about the professional service at IRMR. The general manager, Sandra Beckwith, is very much a presence at meals and during the day. She sets a high service standard. The staff are clean cut, professional and very personable. No one was ever too busy to chat or answer questions.

For the most part we ate our lunches on the trail. IRMR provides trail mix and we had the odds and ends we picked up in Hailey to make snacks. We did lunch one day at the Stanley Baking Company. Excellent! Fresh, organic salads, delicious soup and hearty sandwiches. The cookies were just perfect for our pre rafting trip snack (did I mention we are very active and had to keep our energy up???)We also had one lunch at the Kneadery in Ketchum. The food was good, the service frightening. The server was apparently angry about something and slammed dishes, snapped at customers and generally gave off the vibe of mass murderer in the making. We didn't linger.

WHAT WE DID:
We hiked several trails. One word of warning, the altitude can pack a wallop. Although I have hiked at high altitudes (Machu Picchu, Canadian Rockies) without a problem, I was definitely affected by the altitude on this trip. After a day or two it evened out, but be alert and carry lots of water, rest when you need it, and turn around to seek a lower altitude if you really start to feel it. It is not a matter of fitness or age and can affect you any time. The trails we took were well maintained but had few markings. It was easy to lose a trail in the snowbanks. A couple of times we ran into high water (apparently very heavy snowfall this winter) which made it a good idea to have some water sandals with us. Also important to check in at the Ranger stations for trail reports. We were discouraged from taking some popular trails (Alpine Lake) because the water was so high it would have presented a danger. We did Fourth of July Lake and Borah Lake, Horton's Peak (fabulous 360 view), Sawtooth Lake and several shorter hikes. We saw very little wildlife other than birds. The most spectacular thing we did see was the profusion of wildflowers of every variety. Just gorgeous colors in all directions.
We went to Custer, a ghost town northeast of Stanley. It is very interesting and the ranger there, Jenny, is a great storyteller and resource. We spent that afternoon on a rafting trip with White Otter Company. The trip was fun, but expensive for two hours ($67 per person). The guide we had talked non stop about herself and was a bit annoying, but the views are pretty and it was fun to splash around in the cold water for a while.
We saw some excellent mountain bike trails and a really nice trail from Hailey north which is paved and part of the rails to trails project. We will do that the next trip.
Enzian, I did not see any tennis courts up in Stanley. There were a number in Ketchum/Sun Valley which is about forty minutes south. Tiff, no golf courses for you and DH here. They, too, are in Ketchum/Sun Valley.

SOMETHING SPECIAL:
I am celebrating a big OH birthday this year. My pals decided to surprise me with something special every day while we were in Idaho. They conspired with Stephanie Knox, the office manager at IRMR. Stephanie really took this mission to heart.She decorated our cabin on the day of arrival, arranged a serenade, handled a terrific chocolate cake filled with fresh strawberries,mimosas for breakfast....Her infectious laugh and enthusiasm really added to the fun of the trip. Stephanie is a really wonderful part of what makes IRMR worth a visit.

SUMMING IT UP:

When I told friends in North Carolina I was headed to Idaho for a week, the general reaction was an incredulous "Idaho? What's there?" What we found were spectacular natural areas (Frank Church did very well by his home state in preservation of wilderness) and a popular commitment to outdoor activities. There is plenty of shopping and other diversion in Sun Valley, but when you are ready to find your place alone and feel the real splendor of America, head north to Stanley and beyond.

I know someone who went to Idaho from San Francisco, and now I wonder if she was a part of your group :)

Oh, cmcfong. It sounds like it was an absolutely fabulous trip and "Oh" birthday. I am so happy for you. Idaho IS really beautiful.


PS - I was thinking about you this afternoon. I decided to wade with the labs in the pond, slipped on the mud at the bottom and fell on my arse in the mud. Still had my margarita in hand though! As I was laughing at myself and wondered if anyone happened to see me I thought, "Well, cmcfong would have a good chuckle at this one!". Have no idea why - but I think you would have!

I am sooo jealous! It sounds like a wonderful trip. I am going to put it on my must-do list.

Faina, all of our group came from North Carolina,so your friend was not one of us. There were several folks at IRMR from the Bay area so we may have crossed paths.
Birdie, you are right to be jealous. It really was spectacular.

Starrsville, you are so right, I would have loved to see it! You are my kind of gal.
The OH birthday continues, I have declared it the year of cmcfong and intend to celebrate for at least twelve months!

I've got an OH coming up in October. Keep changing my mind where I want to celebrate it. I'm glad you had a good opening day to your OH year in Idaho!

Hi C,

Your trip sounds just great! I always love going up to the Sawtooth/Ketchum area, even though I live in Park City. Live in one ski town, visit another!? Oh well.

The rail trail is a great bike ride. It goes all the way from Bellvue to Ketchum, where all kinds of bike trails join in. Not too hard either.

Hope you get to come out to the west again soon. Have you tried Utah yet?

Wow What a great report on your trip! I live in Boise and I can attest to most of what you said but have little time now to do the hiking and such since having kids. I use to do lots of fly fishing with my husband around the Stanley/Lowman area, as well as the Wood River in Sun Valley/Hailey. (also Silver creek) Anyways, I have to laugh when people ask where Im from and I say Idaho and I get the same response as you...."Whats in Idaho?" Well now you know! ;)

Absolutely love Utah, Dayle. We have done Arches, Canyonlands, Moab, Gand Escalante, Zion and Bryce. One thing I definitely want to do is go and volunteer at the Best Friends facility. SLC is one of the prettiest major cities in the world. Oh, my cowboy hat is from Park City. Hard to choose a favorite, isn't it?

I'm a believer, Rese. Can't wait to get back. Love Boise!

Starrsville, don't have just one OH celebration. Have twelve. There are too many choices to pick just one. My high school class is meeting in Charleston for our group OH, but there are little ones every month!
Here's a thought, come to Mt. Airy and I will treat you to an OH girls lunch at Goobers......

Well, goooolll-lee, cmcfong. I just might do that! Can I have a Co-cola with peanuts in it for an appetizer? Maybe bonniebroad could drive up for a mini-GTG :-)

((^)) Happy Birthday Dear!! ((F))

It all sounds wonderful! It sounds like the sort of place, with the eagles in the air and the sights , that I would be walking around, looking up, stumbling along lol and perhaps falling on my arse in a cold stream ... starrsville, how did you manage to keep that drink in your hand?! lol
Welcome back...:)

I was surprised too, Scarlett. I guess the answer to your question is "Priorities" :-)

Starrsville, whatever you want, the sky's the limit!

i think i'll just copy this entire trip.
what a great report!sounds fabulous.

lincasanova, do you have children who would be travelling with you? If so, this really is a great destination. The resort has horses on site and they offer a wonderful riding program. There were two little girls from Germany there at the same time as us and the staff would take them down to "run" the horses in the evenings. They loved it. IRMR also offers children's dinner hour and activities for them during the parents' dinner. One evening they feature a dutch oven dinner and all the guests are taken by wagon down to a corral area for the meal. The kids (and we) enjoyed it immensely. Stephanie Knox provided musical entertainment which really made it a lot of fun.
www.idahorocky.com/ I hope you will go and love it like we did!

Thanks for the great report. Your photos on TA are beautiful! I'm adding the IRMR to my must do list, which is already way too long.

Thanks so much for your report, cmcfong

Two years ago when we went to YNP and GTNP, I wanted to include some time in Idaho, but couln't find too many who would "speak to the topic." I now know that Idaho deserves its own 2 weeks on one of our future trips and will save your report.

Could you give more info about your favorite or best hikes ? Length, difficulty and perhaps your fitness level. We have both passed a of O's, and unfortunately, our level of hiking is dipping a bit.

Did you have to make reservations really far ahead for the places you stayed?

Oh cmcfong ~ how you do make me laugh. I am SO glad that the "OH" birthday celebration continues! Even here in our area, we too have declared this the 'year of cmcfong'. You are so cute, and we have lived vicariously through your 'trip a month' year!

The The Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch sounds so delightful. For a moment I truly was on that porch sipping lemonade, great description, I even saw a bald eagle. And sweet Elsa at the Ellsworth Inn, bless her heart.

How special it is that your friends surprised you each day with a little treat!

Welcome home, dear friend, you have a following now with the 'trip a month' Big-Oh birthday celebration year and yet again you don't let your public down! (I just reread your Bermuda report the other day!)

p.s. DH and I will be visiting your Angry Trout in a few weeks! I'll look for your otters!

Great report, thank you.
((L)) Tiff

Hi Cmcfong, A Happy Birthday to you too! I will also be celebrating a big "0" b'day later this year, but Idaho in Dec. is not where I'll be. Great trip report, we've been out to Stanley/Sun Valley, it is beautiful out there and we loved watching the Prarie Dogs!
Since you loved the hiking/scenery in ID, wait until you get to AR. You are going to go wild! We've pretty much been all over this country and have been totally blown away by the scenery in AR, especially Iguazu and Patagonia!

Glad to hear you're having a great travelling year, I'm not too far behind you!

cmcfong: Happy Birthday! It sounds like you had a great trip. And Stanley is beautiful, isn't it? I love the Sawtooths.

Thank you for all the great birthday wishes. I do love to celebrate. One morning while I was up at the breakfast buffet snarfing up the day's ration of blueberry cinammon crumb cake and scones, everyone at my table put on these ridiculous tee shirts with my photo and 'Yippppeee, I am SIXTY" written across them. Too funny.

Tiff, I so wish I could join you and DH at the Angry Trout. It remains a favorite treat, especially the little otter family antics. I will be doing my December celebration in Bermuda! Can't let much time pass without a visit. You and DH will love it there.

Owlwoman, I am looking forward to seeing Bariloche and environs. I have enjoyed your postings and learned so much from them. Scarlett and I are having fun planning our visits to Argentina .

Clousie, we did several hikes. Sawtooth Lakes was a lovely trail, about 10 miles with significant elevation gain. The easiest was Fourth of July Lake which we extended to a challenging hike up to the ridge for a phenomenal view. The Beast of this trip was Horton's Peak, it is 3 miles up with an almost 3000 foot elevation gain. I am in pretty good shape for a woman of a certain age (in my case it is the big SIX OH). I love to hike and climb a local mountain regularly (1200' elevation gain over two miles). I have good aerobic capacity but am so clumsy even my mother pretends not to know me at times. The clumsy is an issue on those narrow trails with sheer wall drops. EEEK.
One trail we passed on was Alice Lake recommended by several folks. It is 12 miles long with only moderate elevation gain. IRMR has topo maps of all the trails and every person on staff was able to make suggestions (with really good critical observations) on hikes. It was nice to hear about a trail from someone who had done it within the past two weeks. There were many many trails from which to choose. Some fairly short ones ran right out of the ranch and we could do those after dinner or while waiting for the group to gather. I have to say getting eight adults underway every day was a little like herding cats.
Yes on the early reservations. I booked as soon as the dates were set because IRMR has so much repeat business. There are two other places of this genre I just love, Mt. Engadine in Canmore, Alberta and Lake O'Hara Lodge near Field, BC. I find booking ahead absolutely essential for all three.
wtm: bump Idaho up to the top of your life list. It won't disappoint you!
Kurieff: I love the Sawtooths too!!!!

LOL, I love the t-shirt story, that is great. And it warms my heart to know you have such special people that adore you in your life because you deserve it and are so truly special to all of us here!

One of the reasons I was re-visiting your Bermuda report is because DH has said with great pride and happiness that he is "Taking me away for my '4-0' next summer" and I thought Bermuda might be a good choice. I am barely 39 and already planning where to go for my 40th. It is a disease I know.
:S-

Bookmarking for a visit to a state I haven't been too!

Tiff, you are in the best years right now! If I could pick any age it would be late thirties. Bermuda would be a perfect place to celebrate. If there is any resort you would like me to check out on my trip I would be glad to do it.
You are right I have some wonderful friends who certainly do make things such fun. You are a sweetie!

A great report on an area I haven't even thought of visiting. My husband and I have planned several hiking vacations the last few years and we are always looking for a new location.

You have stayed at Lake O'Hara Lodge?!!!
That is my dream vacation but it is really expensive. We are planning on at least hiking the area next year. We fell in love with the Canadian Rockies when we visited in Sept. 2004. Stayed at the Emerald Lake Lodge for part of the week--what a spectacular location. The Lake Louise and Jasper areas were truly a hiker's paradise and we have a lot more hikes to try there. I wanted to return this year but it didn't happen.

Happy birthday and thanks for the great report.

Linda, Lake O'Hara is a huge splurge for us, but worth every penny. Enzian, Bob Brown and I are all big fans of the place. A similar place worth considering is Mt.Engadine Lodge in Canmore. There are so many hikes up there, I could never do them all....but I am trying!

Hi cmcfong---wonderful trip report, and thank you for checking on the tennis courts. It looks like the hiking there is so great we would go just for that---I've not yet been to the Sawtooths in the summer. And it's a shorter drive from home than where we usually go (the Wasatch of Utah). So I'll suggest it for next summer (which will be my "big-OH" birthday too).

In the meantime, I'm still trying to find time to sneak off to Lake O'Hara Lodge with my husband. I have a beautiful photo of the place (as a poster) on the wall of my office, right where I can look up from the computer and see it.

Enzian, it really has your name all over it!

My name, really? I've seen lots of chalets in the Swiss alps named "Enzian". . . . but Idaho?

But seriously, I'm convinced; just have to find a time when we can go.

The amazing thing is it had your name and mine all over it!! EnzianCMCFong...kind of stood out to me.

topping for johnthedorf

I would have regretted missing the opportunity to wish you a Happy Birthday, cmcfong!!

BTW, the food on this trip sounded fabulous...made me hungry, lol. :D

Cheers to a wonderful year to come! ((f))

Thanks, STW, you are definitely not too late...this is a year of celebration for me and the party continues!
The food at IRMR was indeed terrific. Now I am hungry just thinking about it.......

Great report and Happy Birthday! I was gone when this was posted!

cmcfong--I am so glad you topped this. We were on vacation when this thread was started so I missed it the first time around. Idaho is beautiful (we lived in the SE area for a bit), but I have never spent time in the area you were at. We love to hike, so I am sharing your report with dh. Thanks!

Hey, cmcfong. Thanks for the report. We did a white water trip on the Snake river a few years ago and the drive up thru Idaho is breathtaking.

Now a great excuse to go back.. Have put IRMR in my favorites file.

Happy BD, too!

Thank you for a great trip report, cmcfong! I haven't been to Idaho in YEARS, but will always consider it one of the most beautiful places on earth! Your trip report makes me want to go back SOON, and thanks for posting your photos, too!

((*))Happy continued OH birthday celebrations!!!! ((*))