I had a huge breakfast in Hailey, which fueled a very eventful last day in Idaho. My first stop was the Hemingway Memorial on the Trail Creek in Sun Valley. It features a Hemingway quote from a eulogy for a friend who died shortly before the writer:
Best of all he loved the fall, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods. Leaves floating on the trout streams and above the hills. The high blue windless skies, now he will be a part of them forever.
Ernest Hemingway moved to the area from Cuba with his fourth wife, and it was in nearby Ketchum that he killed himself with a gun after a life-long struggle with depression. This memorial would be the first of two Hemingway stops this day. This first one, near a scenic trail, gave me an opportunity to let Tamu off leash to frolic with other dogs. He made friends and even went in the cold mountain water. It was a great start to the day.
During my trip around the state, I noticed that people from the rest of Idaho tend to debunk Ketchum and Sun Valley as a place for outsiders–tourists and snobs–and point you to other more beautiful places in the state to visit, so that you do not have to mingle with people there. Sun Valley has the ski resorts and Ketchum is the nearby town. Tamu and I went back there to shop a little, walk the town a little, and be seen. It was a sunny, pleasant day, and Tamu made more friends. Because of the big breakfast, I skipped lunch to see as much Idaho as possible.
From the town, we headed to the Ketchum Cemetery to pay our respects to Ernest Hemingway. His grave overlooks the Sawtooth Mountain Range, offering a bit of peace in death that the writer did not find in his life there. On the day we visited, there were numerous gifts left behind to him: coins , notes, stones, and a battered copy of The Old Man and Sea.
From Ketchum, Tamu and I headed north, into the Sawtooth National Forest. It was not clear whether we would be able to complete our intended journey northward on the scenic byway because of the forest fires that summer, but we headed up the road, making a stop to take in the stunning view of the mountains at the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
We faced fire warnings along the way and restrictions on getting out of our car, but we were able to press on to Stanley, a small Old West town. A woman at the recreation area had recommended the Stanley bakery, but it was closed when we arrived. I was famished, and towns were few, so I enjoyed a pizza at Papa Brunees.
From Stanley, we headed east along the Salmon River Scenic Byway, which parallels the Salmon River and provides beautiful views of the mountains and forest. I was determined to visit the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural & Educational Center in Salmon. It was evening when we arrived, and the center had closed, but a number of exhibits were outside, so Tamu and I walked along the path, learning about Sacajawea, the only woman on the Lewis & Clark expedition. Sacajawea (sometimes spelled Sacagawea) was a Lemhi-Shoshone who joined the expedition in North Dakota with her infant son, and accompanied the team to the west coast of the continent. The center provided cultural and historic context about the Lemhi-Shoshone and Sacajawea, which we could read as we followed the displays. It was a gorgeous evening, made more so by managing to see much of the site. Tamu also made friends with the young horses housed on the site.
By the time we finished exploring it, we had a bit of time to wander around Salmon, a quaint western town on the Salmon River, where we saw our last Idaho sunset. We had hoped to stay the night there, but the whole town was booked up for a marathon the next day, and the nearest available hotel was in Montana. We would have to route north and then west–passing briefly through the panhandle the next day–to make the nine hour journey back to Seattle, and then the long flight back home. It may not have offered us a place for the night, but Salmon provided a stunning, peaceful evening which capped a beautiful, peaceful trip.
I hope to return to see Pocatello and points east. But for the moment, my time in Idaho was over.