View From The Top
It was from that last spot on the ridge that we had the best views of the entire day. To the east we could see the Boulder Mountains a little to the north and the Pioneer Mountains to the south. It's also from this spot that we were just about directly west of Sun Valley and Ketchum, both of which were about 13 miles away as the crow flies. The Pioneer Mountains sit on the other side of Sun Valley and Ketchum.
To get to the spot where we climbed that ridge for the view, we dropped down the Apollo Creek drainage and shot back up the Baker Creek drainage, actually taking the groomed trail that we baled off earlier in the day. The groomed portion of the trail ended and we made our way through the trees up the mountain to where it opened up into a huge play and climbing area.
Aside from the previously mentioned east-west ridges, there are plenty of rolling hills as well that gradually give way to the steeper north-south ridge. And although it hadn't snowed significantly for a few days prior to our ride, we managed to find pockets of excellent powder. Of course, in the next several days following our ride in Sun Valley, the area got pounded by storm after storm.
We followed Baker Creek up as far as we had time to and then headed back to the pickup. Once we picked up the groomed trail it was a quick 10-mile ride back to the parking area.
Okay, it wasn't that quick because we stopped to play on a hillside across Baker Creek from the groomed trail. What a great stop that ended up being. The snow was near-perfect on that hillside and we had it all to ourselves. That small area was typical of what we found all day in the Baker Creek area. Play it out and then move on to the next. We passed far more play areas like that than we stopped at. The groomed trail simply serves as an ideal access to get to all those play areas and the backcountry. The trail map would be pretty simple to make for this area. One way in, one way out. One trail.
Baker Creek is just one of the areas in the valley where you can ride. On the same side of the highway as the parking area are several more miles of groomed trails in and around the Boulder Foothills. Another is the Wood River Recreation Area three miles west of Hailey, in the south end of the valley.
Snowmobiling in Blaine County and the intensely famous Sun Valley area is ironic in a way in that just up and over Galena Summit is one of the most popular snowmobiling spots in the American snowbelt-Stanley. Stanley is to snowmobiling what Sun Valley is to skiing. Perhaps that's one of the reasons snowmobiling is overlooked around the Sun Valley area, even though sledders pass by places such as Baker Creek on their drive to the Stanley Basin. We think snowmobiling is worth a look-and a stop-in Sun Valley/Blaine County. If you want to get technical, part of Blaine County's trail system is over Galena Summit near Smiley Creek, although most sledders associate Smiley Creek with Stanley system.
You won't leave the Sun Valley area any richer monetarily, but chances are you will be richer for the experience.