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Central Idaho’s Smoky Mountains cover a region of 337,000 road-less acres and aside from just a few lake basins which are often frequented by the populations of Sun Valley, Ketchum and Hailey, to the south, these mountains seldom see but a handful of people in any given year. A very rugged and picturesque range, their isolation and unprecedented beauty has persuaded Idaho Conservationists to lobby for nearly 130,000 acres, not within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, to be set aside as wilderness. As with all of central Idaho’s mountains, few trails access this region however, those that do enter the Smoky’s serrated domain are good and well maintained. Sun Valley’s premier ski mountain, Mount Baldy is part of the range’s southern parameters. Recreational opportunities include, hiking, ski mountaineering, climbing, fishing (in both alpine lakes and streams) and mountain biking. For reason’s un-known to me, I tend to see much more wildlife in the Smoky’s more isolated regions than in any other mountain range I frequent in central Idaho. Black bear, mountain lions, large herds of mountain goats, elk, deer and even moose are, in my experiences, common. The Smoky mountains are administered by the Sawtooth National Recreation Area on their northern extremities and by the Sawtooth National Forest on their southern corridor. |
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Serrated slopes of the distant Smoky Mountain’s northern extremities poke above the clouds |
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Ski Mountaineers reconnoiter the snowfields of Silver Peak, the Smoky’s highest. |
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Fly-fishing Prairie Lake, Idaho’s Smoky Mountains. |
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Mountain biking, Smoky Mountains. |
