White Clouds (From Sun Valley Golf and Nordic Center)

There is very little water on this route and during dry seasons any sources are contaminated by the golf course above. Though the climb is moderate, much of the hike is in the sun, so keep some water handy for you and your dogs.

From downtown Ketchum, it is an easy 2.1-mile drive, all on paved roads.  Click here for directions.  There is plenty of parking in the Sun Valley Clubhouse lot.  Park about halfway up the row closest to Trail Creek Road.

There are restrooms inside the clubhouse.

Mid-April through mid-November

From the Sun Valley Clubhouse parking lot, cross Trail Creek Road to get to the large trailhead sign. Keeping that sign to your left, begin a slight climb, passing two intersections within the first hundred yards, staying left at each. The trail rises gradually at the bottom of an open hill. Condos and mansions in the White Clouds neighborhood are directly to your left.

After passing through a small grove of shrubs and trees, come to Y-junction at .23 miles. Stay straight.

The trail bends to the left and continues to climb, eventually offering solid views of both of Sun Valley’s ski areas, Dollar Mountain and Bald Mountain. Continuing on, you will leave the White Clouds mansions behind at the .7-mile mark and immediately come to a jumble of junctions. The first is a Y-junction. Stay left.

Immediately afterwards, come to a four-way junction and continue straight, then to a three-way junction where you will veer left and soon after pass a bench on your right.

As you curl around a small rocky knob, Ketchum’s Big Wood neighborhood lays in the trees in the valley to your right. At .9 miles, come to a signed junction of White Clouds and the Big Wood Connector. Continue straight and access the high road that turns to the right.

The high road marks the start of a pleasant gently rolling ridgeline walk over a valley that hosts a few Big Wood mansions. As you continue along, the Bigwood Golf Course becomes visible and the Wood River Valley opens in front of you offering views as far as the Adam’s Gulch trailhead and the tree-covered Smoky Mountains.

At about the 1.35-mile mark, come to the first of three sweeping turns that follow the contours of the valleys as they cut through the hills. Where the turns tighten, there is often water running down the drainage. It is not recommended to let your dog drink this water, as it is runoff from the White Clouds golf course which is built into the hills above.
After the 1.5-mile mark, come to a bench honoring Dave and Marian Sellgren. Dave Sellgren was a longtime valley resident who developed the Bigwood Golf Course. After Marian died in 1986, Dave remarried Elizabeth “Ricky” Bosted. They owned a portion of the land that this trail was built on, so when the Sun Valley Company was developing the White Clouds trail, it asked Ricky if she would donate a .8-mile easement for the trail. She graciously agreed, allowing the company to connect White Clouds with the Valley View Trail to make a semi-loop.
Moving along the trail, views of downtown Ketchum appear, the city laying at the bottom of Bald Mountain. At 1.7 miles the White Clouds golf course comes into view. The trail continues to wind along the hillside. At 2.3 miles, take the junction left and take the short climb to the destination, a grassy area with views down the White Clouds difficult 5th hole. There is a bench honoring Kelley Elizabeth Goldmanis, a young woman who died of cancer in 2021. Her memory is marked with a reminder to “Look around, take a deep breath. . .”

After taking that deep breath, enjoy the 360° views before retracing your steps back to the trailhead.