8 Prettiest Small Towns In Idaho

Idaho hides some of the prettiest small towns in the Mountain West, each defined by the landscape pressing in on it. Wallace sits inside a narrow Coeur d’Alene canyon with its entire downtown on the National Register. Stanley has the Sawtooth Mountains behind it and night skies dark enough to see the Milky Way clearly. Sandpoint wraps around Lake Pend Oreille with three mountain ranges in view. McCall does the same with Payette Lake. Eight Idaho small towns below where the scenery does most of the talking.

Wallace

The Interstate 90 story tells you most of what you need to know about Wallace. After the town protected its historic buildings, the freeway was rerouted as an elevated viaduct rather than an at-grade route through downtown. Wallace sits in a narrow canyon within the Coeur d’Alene National Forest, framed by steep mountains, with the entire downtown core on the National Register of Historic Places. The Sierra Silver Mine still runs underground tours led in part by former miners, with antique equipment still in place.

The Route of the Hiawatha follows the abandoned Milwaukee Road railbed and runs through the St. Paul Pass (Taft) Tunnel, nearly 9,000 feet long under the Bitterroot Mountains. Many cyclists rank it among the best rail-trail rides in the Pacific Northwest. Back in town, Wallace Brewing Company pours its 1910 Red Light Lager and other local beers, and the Oasis Bordello Museum preserves a working brothel that operated upstairs from 1895 until 1988.

Sandpoint

Sandpoint sits on the shores of 43-mile-long Lake Pend Oreille with the Selkirk, Cabinet, and Bitterroot ranges around it. The lake holds 111 miles of mostly undeveloped shoreline, deep blue water, and quiet forested coves. The 219 Lounge on First Avenue is Sandpoint’s oldest bar, with a diamond pattern on its facade and live music on the patio.

About 20 minutes from town, Schweitzer Mountain Resort runs as one of Idaho’s biggest ski destinations and a year-round family resort. The Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail handles short bike rides with Cabinet Mountains views. Farragut State Park covers about 4,000 acres just south with more than 40 miles of trails, disc golf, camping, and boating. Sandpoint City Beach Park gives the in-town lake access with walking paths and bike trail connections.

Bayview

Bayview is the small lakeside community at the southern end of Lake Pend Oreille, with float-house neighborhoods that look more like coastal villages than Idaho. The cliffs and rocky walls above the bay support mountain goats, eagles, and other alpine wildlife visible from the water. Farragut State Park covers the surrounding land at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille in the Coeur d’Alene Mountains with swimming, camping, and trails. Scenic Bay Marina’s Historic Lime Kiln Park preserves early 1900s lime kilns next to a small picnic area, and Ralph’s Coffee House and Cafe handles morning coffee and casual bites.

Driggs

Driggs sits at over 6,000 feet in elevation on the western side of the Teton Range, looking back at the Tetons from the Idaho side rather than the more visited Wyoming side. The town runs as a quieter alternative to Jackson Hole, with skiers heading just over the state line to Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyoming. Balloon operators run flights over the Teton Valley, and the Teton River and its tributaries draw fly-fishers for cutthroat and rainbow trout.

The Royal Wolf serves a ground-buffalo burger that has become a local institution. Pierre’s Hole Historical Marker just outside town commemorates the 1832 fur-trade rendezvous and the Battle of Pierre’s Hole that followed. The Teton Valley Museum holds two stories of regional history exhibits including pioneer artifacts and Native American collections.

Stanley

With the Sawtooth Mountains rising behind it and Redfish Lake nearby, Stanley is one of Idaho’s most spectacular settings. The Salmon River, one of the cleanest major rivers in the Rockies, runs along the edge of town. The Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve makes Stanley one of the best places in the Lower 48 to see the Milky Way with the naked eye, designated by the International Dark-Sky Association in 2017.

Redfish Lake holds glass-clear water and a sand beach at its head end, and Sockeye Campground gives spacious rustic sites in dense forest. The Sawtooth Scenic Byway runs north from Ketchum to Stanley with several pullouts for landscape photography. Cove Creek Hot Springs sits along the Salmon River for a warm soak with the cold river running beside.

Ketchum

Ketchum is the working downtown of the Sun Valley area, with hillside houses, art galleries, and museums along nearly every block of its compact center. The Sawtooth Botanical Garden just south of town holds one of the larger prayer wheels in the United States, dedicated by the Dalai Lama during his 2005 visit to Sun Valley.

Warm Springs Preserve covers open meadows and shaded creek-side trails on the western edge of town. The Sun Valley Museum of Art runs contemporary exhibitions and programs that extend into the surrounding landscape. Ernest Hemingway lived his final years in Ketchum and is buried in Ketchum Cemetery, where a simple flat stone marks the grave that still pulls fans of The Old Man and the Sea and the rest of his work.

Grangeville

Grangeville sits on the rolling Camas Prairie at the edge of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. The surrounding hills run in long parallel waves, with rivers winding between the forested ridges. Gravity Hill outside town is the well-known optical illusion where a parked car appears to roll uphill, though the actual gradient runs downhill.

Snowhaven Ski and Tubing Area, run by the City of Grangeville, handles small-scale local skiing and tubing in winter. The White Bird Grade on US-95, climbing out of the Salmon River canyon, runs as one of the better road-bike climbs in northern Idaho, with the summit marking the watershed divide between the Salmon River and the Camas Prairie.

McCall

McCall wraps around the southern shore of Payette Lake with alpine-style buildings, rustic cabins, and a compact downtown. Ponderosa State Park, on a peninsula extending into the lake, holds old-growth ponderosa pine with trails running through dense woods, sagebrush flats, marshes, and lakeside cliffs.

Brundage Mountain Resort north of town runs nearly 2,000 acres of skiable terrain with powder snow that draws regional skiers. Riverfront Park has a walking bridge over the Payette River with good water views, and Rotary Park sits on the lake with public beach access. Alpine Pantry and Provisions handles breakfast, lunch, or a drink on its lakeside patio.

Idaho rarely gets its due. The Sawtooths and Sun Valley draw the headlines, but the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, one of the largest contiguous wilderness areas in the Lower 48, sits quietly in the middle of the state. The eight small towns above sit at the edges of all that scenery and hold up against the best in the West.