Sun Valley Things to Do

If you go in the winter to Sun Valley, you must go snowskiing or snowboarding. The most common places are Dollar Mountain (easy) and Baldy.

Dollar Mountain is pretty much just snow - not a lot of trees. It's fun but you have a lot of beginners and none of the slopes are that challenging for decent skiiers/boarders.

Baldy has a mixture of trails that are easy and difficult. There are some good black diamond ones that go through trees. Fun!

I'd recommend getting an all day lift ticket unless you are absolutely positive you will only ski for half day.

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The Parade runs along Main Street in Hailey. Things get started in the morning with everyone setting up their chairs along the route. It can be very hot, so prepare with a hat, water and food. There aren't many vendors selling food, maybe none in fact. People bring food, or are associated w/ a store front that may have it's own little mixer going on.

You can see everyone come out for the parade. And mostly locals populate the parade itself. It's a day when Hailey comes even more alive.

After the parade on Main Street and before the fireworks show, a great way to spend the evening is at Hailey's Rodeo Grounds watching the rodeo and listening to the bad jokes from the announcer. (Cheesy, but "kid-safe" jokes like: I knew my wife was Mrs Right when I met her, I just didn't know her first name was Always.) The show is great w/ b roping cattle, riding bulls and circling drums. Prepare to get very dusty. The crowd is a little different on the 4th in Hailey too. We had well-heeled New Yorkers sitting behind us commenting like foreigners. They were in town for the weekend visiting friends.

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Bike down from Ketchum to Hailey and back and enjoy the scenery of the valley. There is a nice and easy bike path paralleling but not right next to the highway. Traffic along the highway isn't heavy and the speed limit is low between the two cities. I think it's limited to 50 miles per hour. The bike path is mostly flat. there is a slight incline coming into Ketchum. It's an easy bike ride and very picturesque. The path is on the east side of the highway. It isn't difficult to find.

There are other roads that wander through housing developments that can also offer beautiful views of the valley. The roads are cleared after it snows and biking is feasible all year round. Well, except when it is actually snowing or storming.

We drove to Redfish Lake for the day and it was one of the best days of my life! Beautiful surroundings, icy cold water to splash about in, and we had a picnic on the shore. Really breat-taking mountain scenery, it just doesn't get better than that!

If you go to Sun Valley in summer you can get the chairlife to the top of Bald Mountain and paraglide off the top. This is truly amazing, one of the best experiences ever! The guys who run the paragliding are really knoqwledgable and enthusiastic, and you get taken up with one of them piloting, but if you're very good they let you take control a bit yourself! I was with the very lovely Jamie, I don't know if he's still there but he was fab (and rather hot)!
You don't need the same amount of guts to paraglide as you do to skydive etc., it really is a flight rather than a jump, and you get a brillian view of Ketchum and the surrounding scenery, including the spectacular Sawtooth mountains. Best moment of my trip!

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Dollar is a beginner ski run. Once you've mastered Dollar you are ready for River Run. I learned to snowboard here. My instructors were a sister and brother, 14 and 16 yrs old. They were amazing teachers. -children of some family friends.

The lodge at Dollar was expanded in 2005. It is quite nice and offers up great food.