Sun Valley Resort — Attraction in Ketchum

This is a very difficult review for me to write, as there were times during my experience that I could have rated it a 5, and times it could have been a 1. Right now over 10% of the mountain is closed for ski racing set up, some of the trails looking like awesome runs, yet 0 discounts off the $200 daily price of lift tickets. Lots of areas felt very, very congested, to the point that I almost was hit twice, and I personally witnessed 2 collisions, one involving a small girl being hit by an adult male. Very reckless/poor SKIERS (no issue with snowboarders, I’m a skier myself) . I wonder if the congestion is due to the terrain closures, as there were minimal lift lines. The terrain closures that were NOT advertised more than a week in advance immediately left a sour taste in my mouth. That being said, there’s some good stuff here. If you’re of advanced/expert proficiency I’d highly recommend the glades off Seattle Ridge, this is the promised land. The runs that are open off the Challenger Express are very fun as well, the rest of the place is very average/below average for a resort in the Rocky’s. The groomed terrain left a little bit to be desired, as it all became tracked out by noon due to the congested runs. I personally probably wouldn’t ever return as there are far better options out there. This resort is “known for their groomed terrain” , you can find far better at many different places in Utah, Colorado, and even Mammoth in California, as well as Heavenly.

I was going to give this 3 resort stars until I witnessed an interaction in the parking lot, the locals are total Karens. I was waiting for my hotel’s shuttle at the River Run base area, and a woman walking her dog CHEWED OUT a woman driving to pick up what looked like her son for “driving too fast.” … this lady was going 10 miles per hour at tops. If I wanted to be around a bunch of entitled troglodytes, I would have went to Vail. Do...

Snow not required...........Downhill Mountain Biking was a Thrill!

Before this I had ridden on lots of logging roads and trails here and there, but this was my first time taking my bike up a ski lift and then downhill riding down - what a thrill! I had some good crashes learning to navigate banked turns and then trying to speed off the mountain when lightening started was a little scary, but overall I have fallen in love with a new activity! The facilities here are top notch. The lodge where you purchase the lift tickets is beautiful. The customer service was good, although the sales person actually tried to talk me out of doing it - saying you have to be a really good rider. I didn't find that to be true, most of the trails were pretty easy. Yes I crashed, but I push myself pretty hard to learn things and I could have babied it on the turns, but I wanted to get them down the right way. The dining lodge at the top has a nice view and the bartender Matt, was very friendly and informative. We ended up altering our road trip based on an area he told us about and it ended up being our favorite camping of the trip! Overall this is a really fun summer activity for people with riding experience - definitely on my...

We got a special tour by a local whose family owned most of this property many years ago. She drove us all around and showed us inside and out everything and we even got to witness a celebrity wedding. The launch had really nice big fancy open area. All service people were excellent and they even let us park right in the front of the lodge so that we could take a quick tour inside. everything was first class and the pictures on the wall showed that many celebrities dating way back to Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne have spent time here. Before we took the tour we drove by babe Paley Idaho residence of Bruce Willis and was told that when he goes to restaurants he wears sunglasses and pulls his hat down low so that they won't be recognized yet when Arnold Schwarzenegger visits he freely asks if there's anyone that wants their picture taken with him. Obviously a very classy place and the rates were lower than usual because it was mid-may before the...