There is nothing around the forest. That's what makes it great. We are joking — there are lots of interesting points-of-interest. Craters of the Moon National Monument is a 60-mile long fissure in the earth's crust, erupting as recently as 2,100 years ago. You can drive a seven-mile loop road around the monument; watch how the lava changes from coal black to rusty red and back again. Take a short hike and you can slip into a groovy lava tube, walk on the desolate surface of a lava flow, or stick your head into the vent of a cinder cone. It's all fun and games until the next eruption.
The Ulysses Mine, Clipper Bullion Mine, and the Gold Hill Mine all produced gold during their heyday in the late 1800s. Today, you can visit these mines and see the rusting machinery that remains. Between Pine and Panther Creeks, a Sheepeater Indian shelter and dig sits along the river with evidence of habitation as far back as 8,000 years.
The town of Salmon, population 3,400, sits at the forks of the Salmon and Lemhi Rivers — this location once served as a winter campsite for mountain men Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. Keep in mind that mountain men need not be big, burly and the size of a grizzly bear — Kit was 5 foot 4 inches tall. In the town of Stanley, you can gain access to three scenic byways. The 116-mile Sawtooth Scenic Byway snakes its way through the resort towns of Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley. The 131-mile Pondersa Pine Scenic Byway passes through the historic towns of Idaho City and Lowman before it slithers its way in between the Sawtooth Wilderness Area and the Challis National Forest. Near the Montana border, at Lost Trail Pass, you can begin a magnificent drive along the 162-mile Salmon River Scenic Byway.
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