Our drive from Ketchum to Stanley took us through the beautiful Sawtooth National Recreation Area. This is one of our favorite areas and we just love it. Beautiful!!!!
The entrance to Sunny Gulch Campground in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area is close to the Redfish Lake area which we will detail in our next post.
Sunny Gulch provides a quiet alternative to the craziness and crowds that are around Redfish Lake in the summertime. Even though Sunny Gulch was full every night it still had a much more peaceful and open feel to it (and less kids). The campground is right off the highway but clearly signed and an easy in and easy out.
Campground: Sunny Gulch Campground
Location: Stanley, Idaho
Site: 28 (back-in)
Cost: $13 (50% off with interagency pass)
Services: dry camping
Comments: We love, love, love this campground. We had nice space, great site privacy, beautiful views, peace and quiet, and close proximity to both the Salmon River and Redfish Lake.
We had ideal weather with warm sunny days and chilly evenings. This allowed us to have campfires nightly and to bundle up in jeans, hoodies, and down vests. Mornings were also cool and refreshing so we could eat outside and sip our coffee, listen to the birds and admire the scenery. It was a great respite after dealing with temperatures around 100 degrees F for so long. Perfect!!
We had visitors every morning to greet us!
Our site was within easy walking distance to the Salmon River. The river was basically just across from our campsite and down a short trail.
We would head over there multiple times a day to enjoy it and sit on the rocks.
As great as we thought our site was as we walked around the campground we found a few other sites that might be better. The sites (37, 38, 39) that backed up to the river had the benefit of being able to hear the river while you sat outside and were further from the highway but you didn’t have the same great view of the Sawtooth Mountains. Site 45 had both the river sound and the views but was more open. We thought site 37 would probably be the best site (in our humble opinion).
The Day Use area had great views of both the Salmon River and the Sawtooth Mountains and made a great place for us to hook up prior to leaving. It had a lovely picnic shelter and short trails.
This campground definitely rates number one for us and we are anxious to return.
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