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Offers many head-turning sights along the way

As you drive along the Idaho State Highway 55, the Payette River Scenic Byway, watch the river as it crashes and tumbles over the rocks along the North Fork of the Payette River, a legendary destination for world-class kayakers and whitewater boaters with 15 miles of continuous Class 5 rapids – some of the most challenging whitewater in the nation.

During the summer, watch for boaters in the river between Banks and Smith’s Ferry. Pull over to watch them run the rapids in one of many highway pull-outs along the route.

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The scenic byway begins at the junction of State Street (Idaho 44) and Idaho 55, about 5 miles west of downtown Boise. It carves its route through the grassy foothills of Boise and crosses over a mountain pass before dropping into the Payette River drainage in Horseshoe Bend. Here the mountain flanks transition from grass to ponderosa pines and Douglas fir trees, and by the time you reach Smith’s Ferry, the trees cloak the mountainsides in the Boise National Forest.

North of Smith’s Ferry, the highway parallels a Class 3 section of the North Fork called the Cabarton run. Next you’ll pass over the Rainbow Bridge, a fine engineering marvel built in the mid-1930s. Soon afterward, the highway emerges from the tight river canyon into a broad, tranquil valley known as Round Valley. By the time you reach the first significant town, Cascade, you’ve landed in Long Valley. The route borders Lake Cascade as it progresses North, where you can look across the lake and see Tamarack Resort’s ski slopes carved out of the mountain, and many cattle ranches in the open valley, before you reach Donnelly and McCall.

North of McCall, the scenic highway winds through another tight canyon before it joins U.S. 95 and ends in New Meadows.