dust and starlightIdaho
Sawtooth Mountains
The Sawtooths over a meadow in bloom, from a backroad outside Stanley.
- Photographs
- 1
- Made
- June 2025
- Months
- June
- In the collections
Field notes
When to go
Our one frame here is mid-June 2025, with the meadow in bloom. We were up for a rafting trip, then went exploring the backroads to fire lookouts north of Stanley. The Forest Service says the best wildflower viewing in the Sawtooth Valley is in late spring, once the snow melts and the ground warms, which around Stanley usually means June into July. The high alpine meadows come on in July and August.
Access and rules
This was made from a public road on the way up to a fire lookout outside Stanley. The meadow itself is most likely private: much of the valley floor around Stanley is ranch land kept open under Forest Service scenic easements, which protect the view but don't open the land to the public. Enjoy it from the road, pull over only where it's legal, and don't cross fences.
Entry and passes
Day use at developed sites such as Redfish Lake: $12 per vehicle, $10 at some sites. The America the Beautiful pass doesn't cover it. The concessionaire sells its own $100 annual day-use pass.
Our story
One frame so far: a weathered fence line leading across a meadow in bloom to the Sawtooths outside Stanley, made in June 2025. We were in Stanley for a rafting trip and afterward went exploring the backroads up to the fire lookouts north of town.
It's a quiet, wide-open kind of shot rather than a close look at the range, and we'd like to go back and work the Sawtooths themselves, the lakes and peaks, the next time we're up that way.
Nearest places
All placesAs the crow flies, from the center of Sawtooth Mountains to the center of each.
