These trails, along with 28 other grooming programs, rank Idaho as the leading Western state for snowmobiling.
There are over 7,200 miles of trails, including 900 miles on the Idaho side of the Tetons at Island Park (considered one of the world’s top groomed snowmobile trail systems). Snowmobiling on 10,000-foot ridges is a rush. This guide has more location info along with tips for which flies to use statewide.
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Other winter spots include Black Canyon on the Bear River near Lava Hot Springs, Hagerman’s Malad River, or the Magic Valley area’s Riley Creek, Salmon Falls Creek, and Billingsley Creek - all spring fed and full of trout. With few other anglers out, the chances of pulling in a gold medal trout are high. It’s also becoming known as one of the most productive winter fisheries in the West. And winter fly fishing is a whole other joy.īorn from mountain snowmelt and rain below the Sawtooth Range, Central Idaho’s Big Wood River is one of the state’s iconic fishing rivers. Guided tours and overnight ski trips to spots like the Williams Peak Hut are also an option to safely and comfortably get into the Sawtooths’ famous couloirs and chutes. Hiking, snowmobile, snowcat, helicopter - you can access Idaho’s backcountry however you like. This combination equals backcountry heaven, whether you’re hiking with skins to ski in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, the largest contiguous protected area of wilderness in the continental US, or being dropped by helicopter into the Smoky Mountains by Sun Valley Heli Ski. Idaho has more public land and more peaks over 10,000 feet than any other Rocky Mountain state. That’s what Idaho backcountry skiing is like. Imagine a whole day of pristine powder and steep hills marked only by your single ribbon of carved turns. Skiing in other states can mean tracked-out groomers, or if you’re lucky, a couple of brilliant morning runs on fresh snow before it’s cruddy. Photo: Jon Mancuso/ Sawtooth Mountain Guides
So instead of a chlorinated tub, you get to soak in the middle of nowhere, without distractions.Īt just under a mile off Highway 21 in the Boise National Forest, Bonneville Hot Springs is an awesome hike-in pool for snowshoers and one of my favorite soaks, but there are plenty of other springs to check out and you’ll find them across the entire state. But a geothermal hot spring is better, and Idaho has 340 of them, 150 of which are the perfect temperature for a winter dip - that’s more than any other state. Sure, a hot tub is one way to end a day of skiing or snowshoeing. Nothing beats bathing in natural hot springs while the snow falls. But even when your nose hairs freeze and you have to stoke your cabin’s fire all night long to keep it in the 40s, we know there’s fun to be had as long as you layer up. With an average of 292 days per year below freezing and a record low of -54☏, Idahoans aren’t sissies about winter. In fact, Idaho’s small mountain town of Stanley often sees some of the coldest temperatures in the continental US. This isn’t the Arctic, but it sure feels like it sometimes. This is the closest you can get to skiing on the moon, and it might be the world’s only lava field with a Nordic loop. During snowy months, the park maintains a Nordic ski & snowshoe loop that includes a steep descent down the Inferno Cone. It’s one of the strangest, most surreal landscapes in the country.Īnd it’s even weirder when those lava fields and volcanic cones are covered in snow with only black boulders and gnarled pines peeking through. This enormous park encompasses 1,100 square miles of basaltic lava flows, cinder and spatter cone volcanoes, charred forests, and subterranean caves. South-central Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument is an otherworldly landscape all year. From corduroy to pow, freshies to first tracks, skiers will know exactly what you mean. Idaho skiers and boarders will tell you when Brundage has a bluebird day, or if Schweitzer got dumped on and it’s fresh tracks on champagne powder. And what comes along with that much skiable terrain? Snow lingo. Home to Sun Valley - America’s original ski resort - and a whopping 17 other ski mountains, over 20,000 acres of designated ski area, and even more backcountry to boot, Idaho represents the soul of US skiing.
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