Friday, October 1, 2021
Cloudy day here in Ketchum: two or three wisps of cloud in the bright blue sky.
Tom and Emily were headed for the Botanic Garden, while Pravan, Sue, Rory, and I piled in their Honda for the trip north to Chocolate Gulch.
What a trail! It offers incredible variety, with a barren, rocky landscape up top, lots of stands of pine and aspen, flowing water, and incredible views.
This is the start of the trail, just above The Valley of the Wood River.
The trail gains around 900 feet, but over the first mile and a half: a very gradual, comfortable ascent. As you rise, views open up to the Boulder range across the valley : the high peaks her rise to almost 12,000 feet.
Here’s a better view of the three highest peaks (Ryan Peak 11,713 ft.; Glassford Peak 11,601 ft.; Easley Peak 11,108 ft).
As you come out at the top of the ridge separating the two watersheds through which we’ll be walking, Pravan clambered up for a view.
We met some very nice local women with a great dog, and chatted for a bit. They were nice enough to snap our group of walkers.
After a bit more climbing as you contour around the spine of the ridge, views of the Pioneer Mountains, Idaho’s second highest range, open up.
The shapely pyramid in the distance is Mount Hyndman, 12,009 feet.
After descending a bit you reach a high point overlooking Chocolate Gulch itself.
The view down to the Wood River Valley isn’t bad either.
Pravan had packed a hiker’s lunch as only she can, and we relaxed and enjoyed the views before descending into the Gulch itself.
Much of the walk down was through cool stands of pine and aspen.
The last mile plus is along a rolling trail above the Wood River, easy and lovely going.
After getting cleaned up and putting our feet up, Rory and Pravan came over for a glass of wine before dinner. The temperatures hovered in the low 60’s, and we ate outside on a nice terrace at an Italian place called Rominna’s. The food was surprisingly good and the evening really lovely. Tom and Em treated us all for bringing them to Sun Valley…so I guess you could say that they treated us for having friends like Hal and Sandy!