A Sawtooth National Forest map ($7 at ranger stations) covers most of the area but the adjoining Boise and Challis forest maps would be helpful as well. Most trails are marked on these maps – but some are not, some are inaccurate and some portions don’t exist anymore. A call to the Stanley Ranger station (208-774-3000) would help with any trails you’re not sure about.
After being up there, we learned that you can pretty much camp anywhere you see signs that someone has already done so. You can use established campgrounds but only one or two have a separate area for horses and the corrals we saw were either incredibly small or in serious need of repair. The easiest thing to do is decide which trail you want to ride and while driving out the access road to the trailhead, pick one of the many campsites you'll see along the way. Your decision is limited by what you want to drive your truck/camper/trailer on and how far off the access road you want to be.
Since we live near Horseshoe Bend, we drive to Stanley through Garden Valley and Lowman. The first area we get to is about 20 miles from Stanley and just north of Banner Summit. Bull Trout CG is two miles off Highway 55 at MM 106.5 and sounded like the idea place to start. The horse corrals area isn’t marked but it’s the first left about two miles back. It’s a wide road and you can just see a gate about a 100 yards back, just beyond the water pump station. Campsites are usually available during the week but you’d want to make a reservation for the weekend (www.reserveusa.com). The single sites have a 10x10' pipe corral for $10/night and the double sites have two adjoining corrals for $20/night. There’s a huge area to turn around at the end of the short road for these four campsites.
After getting our boys settled in the corral, we headed out on our motorcycle to check out the other areas and trails we thought we might want to try. That took us all afternoon and we limited ourselves to checking out just four areas! Afterwards, we decided to move to a site near some abandoned farm buildings in the meadow right along the Bull Trout road. We hobbled the horses and let them graze while we set up our highline in the trees. The mosquitoes were prolific and we learned its better to put your line where there’s a breeze.
On the second morning, we rode north on the Bench Creek trail (#24). You can also ride it south (it crosses the highway) and go all the way to Marten Lake. The trail going north starts about a mile back the Bull Trout rd. We went about 6 miles to where the trail intersects Bear Valley road. This was a really nice trail with lots of variety; not too rocky or too steep. Even so, I was glad I had my normally barefoot horses shod the previous week. There’s a large and easily accessible camping site with a big meadow at this road crossing. Bear Valley road is graded and sealed but the river rafting companies use it frequently and drive very fast.
After lunch, we crossed the road and continued UP the switchbacks, heading to the Marsh Creek area. The trail petered out three miles later at the top of a ridge line (9000') and we had to come all the way back down. We rode several miles out the forest road to the highway (MM 110) and Terry hitchhiked back to the motorhome while I waited with the horses.
We drove a little further up the highway to the Marsh Creek area (MM 114) where the highway changes direction from heading north to south, about 15 miles from Stanley. We had found an awesome campsite right ON the creek the previous day. It had trees in the open for our highline, a great big meadow for grazing, plus the creek for bathing the horses after each ride. (I think that helped with the mosquitoes and flies.)
The next day we rode further back the main forest road trying to find the other end of trail #24 but couldn’t find it. We continued on the forest road, past Lola Creek CG to the smaller Marsh Creek CG and the Bear Valley Creek trailhead. Its about 1½ miles total on a good forest road to this parking area, small campground and a few very small corrals at the trailhead. We rode alongside Marsh Creek on the really nice Bear Valley Creek trail. It had good footing most of the way and was basically level and of course, had great scenery. There is one short section that is fairly narrow but you could dismount and easily walk that portion. This trail splits in about 6 miles and goes to a hotspring or the Bruce Meadows area (about 16 miles via that graded/sealed Bear Valley road).
On the fourth day, we found where trail #24 crossed the Lola Creek forest road (it was nicely hidden) and headed south, hoping to find where the trail had disappeared from the other side. After about two miles, the trail started up and continued UP and got rockier and rockier. When we finally got to within sight of the last big peak we would have to climb - we decided we were close enough and wouldn't want to do this particular trail again anyway.
As we left our campsite later that afternoon, we saw another couple scouting for their perfect site on their ATVs. This typically starts on Thursdays but the whole Stanley area had been quiet since Monday. There are so many other places we want to camp and ride near Stanley so we plan on returning later this summer; in the fall, next spring ...