Lost ski areaIdahoRocky Mountains
Bear Gulch
Closed after the 1985 season. A small Forest Service ski hill east of Ashton, Idaho's second ski area after Sun Valley, that ran from about 1940 until the 1984–85 winter.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Bear Gulch lay on the Targhee National Forest beside the Mesa Falls road east of Ashton. Ranger Rufus Hall chose the site in 1938, Alf Engen sketched its three runs, Bear Cat, Dipper and Teddy Bear, in the spring of 1939, and a Civilian Conservation Corps crew cleared them that summer.1,2,3,4
Read the whole historyTodayThe site is a snowmobile and recreation trailhead, with a three-sided shelter and restrooms where the lodge stood. (2021)1
Timeline
8 events · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Bear Gulch, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Bear Gulch
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 33.5 mi away · IdahoA short-lived one-chairlift ski area beside the highway north of Island Park, near the turnoff to Ennis.
- Years not yet collected · 39.9 mi away · MontanaLakeview Mountain, 28 miles east of Monida amid Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, offered skiing and ski touring by snow coach in guides from 1971 to 1975.
- Closed 1971 · 43.4 mi away · IdahoA ski area on the Swan Valley side of Pine Creek Pass, known for a radio station's ski school that bused in eastern Idaho children, which shut down in 1971.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 5 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Bear Gulch lay on the Targhee National Forest beside the Mesa Falls road east of Ashton. Ranger Rufus Hall chose the site in 1938, Alf Engen sketched its three runs, Bear Cat, Dipper and Teddy Bear, in the spring of 1939, and a Civilian Conservation Corps crew cleared them that summer. The historical marker says it opened in the winter of 1940, with Yellowstone trains bringing skiers; Teton Valley Magazine gives 1938. A cable-drawn sled carried about 14 skiers up for 10 cents, and a rope tow was running by the fall of 1940.1,2,3,4
It shut for World War II in 1942 and reopened in 1945. A T-bar replaced the sled in 1948 and a double chair came in 1965; at its height the area also ran three rope tows on about 600 feet of vertical. Teton Valley Magazine says community operation ended in 1970, when Grand Targhee opened, and private owners ran it now and then after that. The historical society records a last season in 1984–85, and in 1986 the Forest Service declined to renew the permit.1,3,4
Sources differ on when the empty lodge burned: 1986, late 1989 or around 1997. By 1993 the Associated Press listed Bear Gulch among Idaho's closed small hills, and a rusting lift still stood in 2020.1,3,4,5
TodayThe site is a snowmobile and recreation trailhead, with a three-sided shelter and restrooms where the lodge stood. (2021)1
Timeline
- 1938Ranger Rufus Hall surveys sites and picks Bear Gulch1,2
- 1939Alf Engen lays out three runs; a CCC crew clears them1,2
- 1940Opens in winter, per the marker; a sled lift carries skiers up1,2
- 1942Closes for World War II, reopening in the winter of 19451,4
- 1948A T-bar replaces the old sled lift1,3
- 1965Double chair installed beside the Dipper run1,3
- 1970Community operation ends as Grand Targhee draws skiers away1,4
- 1985The 1984–85 season is the last; it does not open again1
Sources for this history (5)
- 1Fremont County Historical Society · Bear Gulch Ski Basin
- 2Waymarking.com · Bear Gulch Ski Basin historical marker (Mesa Falls Scenic Byway)
- 3Rexburg Standard Journal · Bear Gulch a fond memory for Ashton residents (Lisa Dayley Smith, July 9, 2020)
- 4Teton Valley Magazine · A Skiing Heritage (Karen Russell, November 1, 2015)
- 5The Lewiston Tribune · Small skiing operations closing (Associated Press, December 12, 1993)
Photos
No photographs of Bear Gulch we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Bear Gulch, in their own words.
Facts
Location
44.1516° N · 111.2865° W · Idaho
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
until 1985 · the year it opened is not yet collected
Closed after the 1985 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 2all 2, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain