Stanley, Sun Valley & Craters of the Moon

One of the most beautiful alpine lakes in Idaho — a 2-mile-long glacier-carved lake at 6,550 feet, backed by the jagged granite peaks of the Sawtooth Range. The red sockeye salmon that gave the lake its name were once so abundant they colored the water red during spawning season; the recovery program has brought them back from near extinction. Kayak rentals from the lodge, hiking trails from the south shore.

A small valley town at the base of the Sawtooth Range with a Main Street unchanged since the early 20th century — a general store, a couple of bars, and the Mountain Village Restaurant that has been feeding river guides and Sawtooth climbers for decades. The sky above Stanley is one of the darkest in Idaho.

A Stanley institution — prime rib, Idaho trout, and the kind of Western bar where river guides and climbers eat side by side. The outdoor patio faces the Sawtooth peaks and the smell of woodsmoke is constant.

Hemingway chose Sun Valley as his home for his final decades and is buried in the Ketchum Cemetery — the memorial on Trail Creek is a bronze bust installed by his sons, situated above the creek in the forest he walked daily. The meditation on the sculptor's base is from 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' The cemetery is a 5-minute walk from the memorial.

America's first destination ski resort, built by Averell Harriman in 1936 — the Sun Valley village retains the Austrian chalet architecture Harriman imported and the ice rink where Sonja Henie filmed Hollywood musicals. In summer the chairlifts operate for mountain biking and sightseeing, and the Village is walkable and exceptionally well-maintained.

A Sun Valley institution since 1937 — a log cabin restaurant in the forest above the resort, accessible by horse-drawn sleigh in winter and on foot or horse in summer. The lunch menu serves Idaho comfort food in a setting that was Hemingway's regular dinner spot during his Sun Valley years.

Ketchum's Main Street has developed a gallery district of genuine quality — 20 galleries showing Western landscape art, contemporary photography, and sculpture by artists drawn to the Wood River Valley light and the Sawtooth backdrop. The level of work is surprisingly high for a small resort town.

A high-altitude botanical garden in Ketchum demonstrating what grows at 5,800 feet in the Northern Rockies — the native plant collections and the water features designed to work with the Wood River watershed make this a peaceful afternoon.

A Ketchum institution on Main Street since 1975 — Idaho prime rib, prime steaks, and cold local beers in a saloon that has remained deliberately unchanged while the resort town around it has gentrified. The prime rib sandwich is the correct order.

A 750-square-mile volcanic field that last erupted 2,000 years ago — recent enough that the lava flows look brand new, with collapsed lava tubes and cinder cones rising from the Snake River Plain. The Loop Road (7 miles) passes through the main eruptive zones; the short trails to the Inferno Cone and the cave system accessible at Indian Tunnel give the best sense of the geological activity that shaped central Idaho.

Use the afternoon to tackle a second trail, find a quiet viewpoint, or simply soak in the wilderness away from the morning crowds.

The monument visitor center documents the geology of the Great Rift — the volcanic fissure system that produced the Craters of the Moon lava fields and the adjacent Wapi and Kings Bowl fields. The eruption chronology and the astronaut training history (Apollo crews trained here for lunar geology) are both interesting.