- Distance: 119.0 Miles (191.51 km)
- Rating: 2-B, Mostly pretty mellow, a few challenging corners, but lots of emptiness in places too. Ratings Explained »
- Travel: Either direction for best results
- Start: Ketchum, ID
- End: Challis, ID
- Fuel: Ketchum, Stanley and Challis all have fuel
- Along the Way: Ernst Hemingway's grave in Ketchum is worth visiting if you are the literary type. People leave cigars and penny's on his grave to honor the popular writer. The Sawtooth Mountains are amazing! Be sure to stop at the overlook.
- Highlights: Idaho tends to lack in the great-road category, but ID-75 is pretty darn good. The road between Stanley and Challis is very similar to ID-12, Lolo Pass, only a bit more technical and a bit more fun.
- Advisories: Lots of cattle is transported in trucks along this route, be very careful of "spillage" and if you feel something wet, whatever you do, do NOT lick your lips!
Summary
The Salmon River Plain to the south is very plain and very boring. When you arrive in Ketchum you're at the southern tip of some very good riding.
Immediately you climb in elevation into the Sawtooth National Forest. At the top theres a massive overlook that provides an amazing view of the distant Sawtooth Mountains to the north-west. Be sure to stop and savor the view. The road drops again and becomes a typical Idaho road passing down the center of long alpine valley with towering mountains always just out of reach.
In Stanley you can turn west and head back towards Boise, or East towards Challis where the road will get a helluva lot better. It feels just like Lolo Pass (ID-12) only we feel the scenery isn't quite as good however the road is a bit more entertaining because it feels like the same seven corners are repeated over and over again as you follow the meanderings of the Salmon River. When you arrive in Clayton, the terrain flattens out, and the road becomes more relaxed.
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Rate This Road
Have you ridden this road? How would you rate it? With one star meaning you thought this was a super-lame road with very little value, to five stars meaning that you felt like this was the mother of all roads - a road by which other roads should be judged.
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Ratings Explained
The CanyonChasers road rating is two parts. The first part, numbers 1 through 5, describe how technical the road is, with number 1 being a gently sweeping road and number five being very technical with challenging corners. The second part of the rating is a letter, A, B, C, D and F. The letter describes the quality of the road surface with A being perfect, pristine smooth and F being degraded, bumpy and crumbly. Rolling joints, tar-stips or "gummy worms" will drop the road one letter grade.
This road information is for planning and recreational purposes only. You may find that construction projects, traffic, or other events may cause road conditions to differ from the CanyonChasers ratings. Ratings may not be applicable to all riders, all bikes and all skill levels.