sawtooth mountains scenic byway highway 75

[lizzard66]

Is the Sawtooth Mountains Scenic byway Highway 75 closed due to fire? Heading to Glacier National Park. Seems it would be best to take the 15 north and pick up the 93 further north.
Thanks for help. Heading to Twin Falls 8/21/13 from Wells Nevada.

[ReneeG]

Idaho 75 goes through Hailey, Ketchum, Sun Valley, past Stanley, through Clayton and Challis. You may run into fire traffic in the Sun Valley area, but it will be clear and clear skies through Stanley. Stanley is heavily advertising their clear skies to bring tourists in. All these scenic towns are suffering due to the fires and thinking that they are off limits. Once you get past the Wood River Valley (Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley), you would be ok. Here's a link to Idaho's Road Report site and as you can see, only one up north is marked as closed, Hwy 12 - unfortunately the one that we were going to next week. Change of plans for us. Stanley has a Sinclair station and so does Lower Stanley but the one in Stanley is RV friendly. There's a nice restauraunt on the corner of Hwy 21 and 75 with big rig parking for a stop. Nice CG's in the area and they are all open. Hope this helps.

[insp1505]

IdahoGem wrote:
I would avoid 75 and continue on 93 through Arco and Challis. It will still be smoky, but not as bad. The traffic on 75 will be horrendous with all the fire trucks/fireman.

X2

Hwy 93 is much more scenic than the freeway route from Twin Falls to Montana.

An alternative is head east at Arco through Howe and then to State highway 28 to Salmon. It is a bit longer than 93 but it is a nice alternative if you want something different than 93. Hwy 28 heads up a large valley between the Lemhi mountains to the west and the continental divide to the east.

Heading up the Little Lost River highway north of Howe to get back on 93 is quite scenic also with the Lemhi mountains to the east and the Lost River range to the west but there is a lengthy section in the middle that is not paved. Don't know how many miles isn't paved but it was a good all weather gravel road with washboards. I've been on it several times with my Truck camper.

[IdahoGem]

I would avoid 75 and continue on 93 through Arco and Challis. It will still be smoky, but not as bad. The traffic on 75 will be horrendous with all the fire trucks/fireman.

[kknowlton]

Not sure if it's officially closed, but it's bound to be very smoky at best. I'd avoid it.