Ketchum, Idaho

This is the vacation home of the rich and famous. We settled ourselves 5 miles out of town on Trail Creek Rd in the National Forest. Later, we also found lots of wonderful, free, officially numbered campsites on Corral Creek road nearby. The photos are of our campsite and the view out our front window. The area is surprisingly sparsely used–we saw only 3 other campers.

Three minutes away at Sun Valley, the wealthy spend gobs doing wealthy-folk things. Also within minutes are the vacation homes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks, Paul Allen, and lots of other celebrities, who come here to escape the spotlight. Locals, by unspoken consent, do not hassle them when they are out and about. We visited Hemingway’s grave; he killed himself here in the 60s when his cancer got too painful.

Fierce thunderstorms and hail swept over us frequently, but in between we managed to hiked some nearby trails. This area had a lot of snow this winter. The rivers and creeks are quite high and the higher trails are still snow-covered and not open yet. It would be better to visit a little later in the summer.