Galena Summit is a broad, quiet notch in the Smoky Mountains at 2,652 metres, and it is the high point of the Sawtooth Scenic Byway, but the reason people stop is the view from the overlook just to the north. From a wide pull-out on the rim you look north across the Sawtooth Valley, a vast, flat-bottomed basin of sagebrush and meadow with the Salmon River winding through it, and beyond it the long, jagged wall of the Sawtooth Mountains, grey and white against the sky. It is one of those views that feels like a map suddenly turned into land.
Highway 75 climbs to the summit from Ketchum along the Big Wood River, through lodgepole pine and open slopes, in a series of long bends and gradual climbs. On the north side, the road drops in a handful of tight switchbacks and long, curving descents into the valley, with the mountains growing ahead. The surface is generally good, and the road is wide, but the descent is steep enough to demand engine braking. Traffic is heaviest in July and August, and when the weather turns, the pass gets cold, with snow possible even in early summer. The summit is rarely closed for long, and the road is kept open all winter, though chains can be needed.
The country takes its name from galena, the lead ore that was mined near here in the 1880s, and a town of the same name flourished briefly as a silver camp before fading away. A little to the north, the Salmon River begins its long journey, running north and then west through the largest wilderness area in the lower forty-eight, the Frank Church River of No Return, and eventually joining the Snake. The valley below is the home of elk, pronghorn and, in the lakes, sockeye salmon that make an astonishing journey of some nine hundred miles from the Pacific to Redfish Lake.
There are no services at the summit, only the overlook, a car park, a few interpretive signs and toilets. Ketchum, about thirty-five kilometres south, has fuel and everything else, and Stanley, to the north, has a small selection of shops, a few motels and, in season, fuel. Fill up in Ketchum before you set out. Bring layers, because the wind at the overlook can be sharp, and take time to look at the peaks, which change with the hour.