Idaho
Sun Valley
When Sun Valley`s ski trails are covered with green, the action shifts to the valley. The thwack of golf balls is heard on the four golf courses. Olympic ice skaters train in Sun Valley Lodge`s ice rinks, preparing for Saturday night ice shows. How about a raft trip down the middle fork of the Salmon River or fishing in the Bigwood River? Are you interested in skeet shooting, mountain biking around the Wood River Valley or hiking amid the wildflowers in the Fox Creek hiking trail area?
Many of the world`s best skaters trained here during their climb to the Olympics and, once famous, they return to perform in the Saturday-night summertime ice shows on the outdoor rink. The schedule includes Debi Thomas, Katarina Witt, Brian Boitano and Brian Orser are expected to lace up to skate. Ticket prices include the show and buffet dinner and cost $58 for adults, $40 for children.
The Golf Digest Instructional School will run June 28-July 7. The three-day mini-schools will be Aug. 3-5, 6-5, 10-12 and 13-15. The Sun Valley Music Festival performances, featuring popular artists such as Herbie Mann 40th Anniversary Reunion Band July 31 and Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers on Aug. 16. The Elkhorn Music Festival (Aug. 9-26) features classical music. Swing bands congregate for the annual Sun Valley Swing `n` Dixie Jazz Jamboree (Oct. 14-18).
Lodge room rates at Sun Valley Resort range from $85-$275 a night, single or double. For information and lodging reservations call the Sun Valley Resort, 800-786-8259.
Buy four nights` lodging at participating properties in the region, and get a fifth night free. Prices start at $49 a night. For more information contact the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of Commerce at 800-634-3347.
Montana
Big Sky
Few folks lump Big Sky country and culture together. But it`s a valid combo July 10-18, the week of the 5th annual Big Sky Arts Festival. The Utah Symphony plays July 10-11; America sings July 17; and Maynard Ferguson and his Big Bop Nouveau Band jam July 18. Musicians perform under a tent in a meadow, and listeners sit on the lawn or on hay bales. The Montana Institute of the Arts is sponsoring workshops and demonstrations in photography, fiction writing and painting in oil and watercolors throughout the week.
Rustic Big Sky resort, about an hour north of Yellowstone National Park in southwestern Montana has five blue-ribbon trout streams within an easy drive, an 18-hole golf course, rafting and kayaking on the Gallatin River and horseback riding. You can take your mountain bike up the gondola and ride it down winding trails. The west entrance to Yellowstone National Park is an hour`s drive south. (The east entrance is near Jackson Hole, Wyo.).
The four-night Yellowstone Country Adventure Package, which includes a raft trip and two horseback rides, starts at $240 a person, double occupancy. For information call 800-548-4486.
New Mexico
Taos and Santa Fe
Taos and Santa Fe claim ski areas in the mountains towering over galleries lining city streets. Those galleries are treasure troves of Southwestern and Native American art and artifacts and lure collectors all year. If you stay in one city, the other is a little more than an hour away via a scenic highway (or a longer but lovely drive through mountains and old villages). You`ll find plenty of hiking and mountain biking in the mountains surrounding these towns, horseback riding on the Taos Indian Reservation and golf.
These havens for artists and art lovers run a variety of programs, concerts and events. The Taos Institute of the Arts offers weeklong classes and workshops in painting, ceramics, photography, art history, writing and other art-related subjects through Oct. 2. The Taos School of Music`s 30th annual Summer Chamber Music Festival features concerts by the American String Quartet and gifted students (through Aug. 8).
The Santa Fe Opera Company (July 3-Aug. 29) performs ”Die Fledermaus,”
”The Beggar`s Opera,” ”Der Rosenkavalier,” ”Don Giovanni” and ”The Sorrows of Young Werther.” The chamber music festival runs July 11-Aug. 24.
Many arts and crafts shows are scheduled during the summer, but two of the best are the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos market and the Santa Fe Market. Book lodging now for the 71st annual Santa Fe Indian Market (Aug. 22-23)
because huge crowds flock to this most famous of all Native American art shows. The annual Eight Northern Indian Pueblos show (July 18-19) is a smaller, less crowded, market held at one of the Indian pueblos.
For more information, contact the Santa Fe Visitors and Convention Bureau, 800-777-CITY.
Utah
Park City
Modern businesses and lodges have been woven into the Victorian fabric of this former mining town, creating a contemporary resort. Outdoor choices extend from playing golf to hiking in Uintas National Forest (the entrance is 19 miles east), or riding Deer Valley`s lift and mountain biking down to lunch at McHenry`s Grill in the midmountain ski lodge.
Summer brain teasers include Utah Symphony performances at Deer Valley on Saturdays, that resort`s seven-week International Chamber Music Festival and Park City Performances of Neil Simon`s ”Chapter Two” at the Egyptian Theatre. The ParkWest Summer Concert series showcases top rock, country and jazz bands in an outdoor setting. The 23rd annual Park City Art Festival, which attracts more than 200 visual and performing artists, is Aug. 1-2.
The Homestead, an elegant country-style resort near Park City, offers a $595 ”You Won`t Believe This” golf package that includes six nights lodging, daily breakfast and dinner, unlimited golf (18 holes/cart), a mini-clinic, unlimited range balls, rental car and more. For more information call 800-327-7220. For information about vacationing in Park City call the Park City Area Chamber of Commerce, 800-453-1360.
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Snowbird
In the neighboring canyon, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort sports an environment to enrich body and mind. In addition to the expected array of outdoor activities, from hiking to tennis, Snowbird offers weekly mountain biking clinics to introduce newcomers to the sport and surrounding trails. The site for international sport climbing competitions, Snowbird offers rock climbing for novices (on an indoor wall and surrounding mountainsides) and advanced climbers. The Outdoor Sports Festival and Expo (July 1-5) features climbing and biking competitions.
Summer cultural events include performances by the Utah Symphony throughout the summer, string quartet concerts through June and July, a folk and bluegrass festival (July 10-11) and the Utah Jazz and Blues Festival (Aug. 7-8). For more information call 801-742-2222; for lodging reservations call 800-453-3000.
Sundance
The folks who frequent Sundance prefer to call it a retreat rather than a resort. With good reason. There are few structured activities in this eco-sensitive resort at the base of Mt. Timpanogos, but there are plenty of ways to exercise the body and expand the mind. The intellectual stimulation comes as much from kicking back and reading books borrowed from the extensive library, to watching videos from the Sundance Institute film library, to stimulating conversations over a gourmet dinner in the Tree Room (decorated with Native American Indian art and artifacts from owner Robert Redford`s collection). Guests stay in the elegantly rustic ”cottages,” or homes, which harmonize with the surrounding landscape on hillsides near the ski slopes.
Redford created Sundance as a year-round arts and recreational community. It is home for the Sundance Institute, designed to support and encourage work in independent filmmaking and play writing. Key figures, up-and-comers and aspirants in the film industry gather here during June and July. Writers and directors meet for the Filmmaker`s Lab, which runs throughout June. From time to time, cottage guests are invited to screenings of films. The Children`s Theatre Screenwriter`s Lab is held the first week of July. During the Producer`s Conference (July 23-26) producers from independent and big companies exchange ideas.
This summer guests may see Broadway musicals (”Li`l Abner” and
”Carousel”) under the stars at the new state-of-the-art Sundance Summer Theatre complex six nights a week from June 27-Sept. 5. ”Carousel” runs June 27-July 10 and thereafter, it alternates with ”Li`l Abner.” Children`s Theatre runs Thursday through Saturday.
During the day, guests can escape into the wilderness via hikes to Stewart Falls or a walk to Mt. Timpanogos Cave. Grab a pack lunch on weekends and holidays because the lifts run so hikers and mountain bikers can have access to a network of trails in the Uintas National Forest. There are catch- and-release trout fishing, windsurfing and sailing on Deer Creek Reservoir.
The Sundance Summer Invitation for Two package, which includes two nights` lodging, brunch in the Tree Room and an evening at the theater, is $135 a person, double occupancy. The Sundance Family Invitation package, which includes three nights` lodging in a cottage, an evening at the theater and several daytime activities, is $169 a person, based on quad occupancy. For more information contact Sundance, Utah Rural Route 3, Box A-1, Sundance, Utah 84604; 801-225-4107.
Wyoming
Jackson Hole
The dramatic Tetons are the focal point for summer visitors. Some vacationers hike along the trails in the Grand Teton National Park, others scale the precipitous mountainsides, while the sedentary simply photograph the needle-sharp peaks that pop up from the flat valley.
Trout streams thread the region, filled with native cutthroat, Mackinaw and lake trout. Those who don`t want to cast lures into the Snake River skim the top on rafts. The south entrance to Yellowstone National Park, with its wild beauty and natural geysers, is about an hour away.
The Grand Teton Music Festival`s 37th season runs July and August. Full symphony orchestra performances are on Fridays and Saturdays; chamber music is performed Mondays through Thursdays. Musicians from some of the country`s leading orchestras spend their summer here.
Art lovers might schedule a trip around the Mountain Artists Rendezvous
(July 11-12). Monthly gallery walks in the summer are scheduled, bringing visitors to the 20 galleries around the valley. There are free seminars in the natural sciences during the 25th anniversary celebration of the Teton Science School (June 27).
Some folks believe the most dramatic view of the Grand Tetons is on the road leading to Grand Targhee Ski and Summer Resort. Drive over and decide for yourself, perhaps to attend the gathering of cowboy poets and Western musicians during the High Country Cowboy Festival (July 17-19). The 5th annual Targhee Bluegrass Festival (Aug. 7-9) goes on-rain or shine. So does the Rockin` The Teton Music Festival, when the sound of blues, rock and reggae bounces off the mountainside.
Further information is available from the Jackson Hole Visitors Center at 800-782-0011.
