June 10,11 – To Sun Valley and Adam’s Gulch

Yesterday we made the easy move north to the edge of the Sawtooth Mountains and the resort town of Ketchum with the Sun Valley Resort nearby.

Across the flat plain to the mountains in the distance. We climbed about 2000 vertical feet to 5600 feet.

You know you are in a pricey resort town when the local airport has a large number of parked private jets.

The Meadows RV Park is another slotted parking lot but it has good WIFI and we wanted hookups this week because it is supposed to be another hot one.

We went the visitor’s center and then wandered around downtown looking at all the expensive stores.

Today we did a hike just north of town at Adam’s Gulch.

Going out, we took the Sunnyside and then Lane’s Trail on the north sunny side of the gulch. Then down to the bottom to take the Old Adam’s Gulch Road Trail back to the trailhead, to make a just over 4 mile or 6 km loop.

The trail makes a slow climb up the side of the gulch. You start in the trees.

Then it opens up.

Zig zagging in and out of the side gullies we hits spots just loaded with wild flowers.

A wider view.

The photosphere.

The trail is shared with mountain bikers, for whom we had to step aside.

There was an interesting outcrop that we got close to.

Vast fields of flowers. The yellow dominated but there were blues and whites as well.

There was a viewpoint with a picnic table where we had a rest. It was too early for lunch.

The photosphere.

Eventually moving on.

We could see some people silhouetted back on the hill with the table.

So many flowers.

The bike traffic was not too bad.

A few snow capped mountains to the west of us.

Then down to the bottom of the gulch.

There was not much to look at down there. It was just a wide, flat, very easy way to complete the loop.

There were a few muddy spots near the creek that flows along side the trail. Each spot was covered in these fluttering blue moths.

There wasn’t really a nice place to have lunch on the way back so we drove into town to a small Rotary Park to have lunch on a bench by a river.

 

Since it was still early we drove to the Sun Valley Resort and walked around the grounds.

This is the older Inn. There is a newer large hotel.

The Opera House (theater).

A lots more pricey shops.

Then home.