Stanley Idaho - September 2017

Sawtooth Mountain Range

For our Labor Day weekend trip, we went to a ranch in Idaho with Rakesh and Simran.  They did not bring Ria on this trip so it was adults only.  We arrived in Boise late on the Thursday night and stayed the night in Boise at the Hyatt Place Downtown, sharing a room 'Calcutta' style!  Originally, Keith and Shawna were going to fly through Denver but due to flight delays, we were rerouted through Oakland via Burbank, connecting on the same flight as Simran.  We decided to surprise her but since we barely made the flight, we surprised her when we boarded the plane (most of the other passengers, including Simran, were already on).  On Friday morning, we drove out to the ranch - the drive is about 3 hours through beautiful mountains with no cell service for most of the way!  We stayed at the ranch from Friday to Monday, returning home Monday afternoon.

Idaho Rocky Mountain Lodge

The ranch (Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch) is located outside of Stanley, Idaho with great views of the Sawtooth Mountains.  There is a main lodge, built in the 1930s, where all meals are served and cabins, where the guests stay, surround the main lodge.  Our cabin was a duplex tucked away in the shade so it was very nice and cool.  The property is 900 acres with hiking/biking trails, a fishing pond, a hot springs and a horse corral.  There also was a brand new pavilion that they recently built but unfortunately, there was an accident where it blew up the first day we were there (some gas leak) - no one was hurt!  The place is very relaxing and beautiful - only downside is there is no cell service and they have a very slow wifi located in the main lodge so we felt cut off from the world which is probably the point!

Our Cabin

All of our meals were included in the rate.  For breakfast, we had a choice of a hot dish along with a continental buffet.  For lunch, we had a choice of sandwich or salad that they prepared to take with us as a picnic along with choice of snacks.  For dinner, it was a pre-fix menu with choice of appetizer, entree and dessert.  One night, they had a grill buffet dinner outside - the theme was Southwestern with grilled meats, enchiladas, salads, Mexican street corn and salsas.  The food overall was very good!

Outdoor Grill / Picnic Area

The town of Stanley is quite cute in a rustic way.  There are only 63 people who live there and it's known for being the coldest town in the winter in the "lower 48"!  Thankfully, we were there in the summer!! The town attracts quite a number of visitors in the summer so there were a surprising number of lodges, restaurants and saloons in town given the small population that lives there!  There is also a couple of galleries (with some nice scenic photos) and a few outdoor gear shops.

Each day we did an activity in the morning, relaxed in the afternoon, and had drinks on the porch before dinner, soaking in the views.  For activities, we did the following:

• Horseback Riding - Simran and Shawna did a 1.5 hour horseback ride which was a lot of fun. They were both nervous at first but then got the hang of it - although they were both quite sore afterward!  The ride took them across the Salmon River into the forest, riding along the hillside with views of the river and valley.  Simran's horse was named May and Shawna's was named Paco (the first horse Shawna tried was called Spanky but he was too tall so she had to switch).

• Mountain Biking - Rakesh and Keith went on a 3.5 hour, 18 mile ride on the Fisher Creek-Williams Creek Trail.  The first 3 miles are along highway 75 - then a 6 mile slow incline up a washed-out dirt road, and then the rest of the way is single-track biking.  Much of the area was burned in the last ~5 years.  It was a great ride.  

• Hiking - Keith and Shawna hiked up to Lonely Tree, a trail located on the property.  The hike took about two hours - it probably would have been shorter but we got lost a few times.  Once on top of the hill, we had nice views of the valley and mountains.  

• Lakes - We drove to see a few of the lakes in the area.  The first was Redfish Lake which is a huge lake nestled in the middle of the mountains.  Unfortunately it was super crowded so we bagged this one.  We then drove to Stanley Lake - it was quite hot and hazy (there were a lot of of forest fires in the area) so we only walked around for a few minutes.  

• Cowboy Poetry - Probably one of the highlights as this was surprisingly good! Rakesh, Simran and Shawna went into town to this event, located in the town square.  We heard a few cowboys recite poetry and stories, some quite funny and a few also sang.  Simran even bought a CD of one of the artists!

• Hot Springs - One evening, we went into the hot springs on the property.  It was a nice temperature and was the first hot spring we tried that did not smell like sulphur.  Our dip was cut short, however, when some of the other guests who were also in the springs with us found a snake.  Granted it was a small garter snake but it was enough to make us want to leave.  We found out the next morning that apparently there were about 10 snakes in the pool so we were quite happy that we did not stay long enough to discover this!!

We really enjoyed it and would definitely go back to Idaho to explore some of the other areas.