After visiting the dredge, drive a mile further to the ghost town of Custer. The schoolhouse, now an interesting museum of Custer artifacts, and a few other scattered buildings remain. The Sawtooth-Stanley country in the early 1970s was a paradise waiting to be discovered and loved to death, the fate of too many American beauty spots. The SNRA includes 754,000 acres, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Recreational opportunities here include fishing, some of the best floatboating in the country, hiking in the 216,383 acre Sawtooth Wilderness Area, an integral part of the SNRA, horsepack trips and trail rides, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing on groomed trails, swimming and boating and just plain relaxing at the NRA's dozens of campgrounds and picnic areas.
Tent camping is a bit chancy.
I have tent camped with my family twice at Iron Creek campground at the foot of the Sawtooths and saw more rain than sun. Sites located some distance from the mountains should be a bit drier. Throughout the SNRA, though, there are more campers, trailers and recreational vehicles than tents. The last time I visited the SNRA, it rained only once, but it was a humdinger. I love a good lightning and thunder storm, but I must admit that I felt very snug in my motel cabin the night it hit.