Sixty years later the road has a reputation unto itself. If the road started as a pack trail to a south facing mine shaft, later road builders simply widened the grades and corners. As a result modern, sport bikers risk life and limb, to set fast time from the first grade to the resort. Local bicyclists compare the unrelenting grade to a mountain stage in the Tour De France and families out for a weekend drive, in time, start searching for the next rest stop.

Now, in late February, an enormous American flag still floats above the billionaire’s huge, manicured lawn.  It’s not the flag, however, that grabs your attention but the slope it undulates above. Locals say Simplot was ninety when he took the bet that he couldn’t grow grass on the forty degree pitch.  He then hired half a dozen fearless mowers and won. In summer, local kids still toboggan down the grassy slopes on blocks of ice. 

First the road. Built in 1938 by WPA crews, it created Bogus Basin Ski Area.  Count a hundred and sixty two turns in sixteen miles--more if you add the feints down the straights--on weekends the road is packed with SUVs which strop fresh snow to a fine sheen. Wrecks are rare but spins are common. All it takes is one nervous driver on bald tires and the parade grinds to a stop. 

      The road originally started beneath Idaho’s Potato King J.R. Simplot’s hilltop home.  Simplot was ninety-nine when he passed in May of 2008 but Bogus wouldn’t exist if J.R. hadn’t bought the failing resort in 1953.  Simplot, who also helped finance Brundage and McCall’s Little Ski Hill, sold the entire operation back to the Bogus Basin Recreation Association (BBRA) for one dollar.   

Bob Greenwood who started Greenwood Sports in Boise used to ski with J.R.  Greenwood remembers,  “J.R. had a reputation as a go for it guy and I’d either stay way out in front, or way behind.”

    The competition, however, is on a weather hold and Robert and I catch the Deer Point Express Chair to the top of Deer Point then follow the Nugget Cat Track down to the base of the Pine Creek Express. Snow is falling at an inch and hour and visibility is down to thirty feet.  We follow the edge of Wildcat down to the Pine Creek base, then on the next run, explore a stand of ancient Douglas Fir to “Matchless.” Robert pops a helicopter off the cat track and is greeted by appreciative whistles from skiers on the Superior Chair above.  The storm intensifies and we poke into tiny glades, rabbit warrens and tilted  meadows where the snow lies, cold silent and untracked.

         Despite Boise’s excellent hotels, restaurants and vibrant downtown night life, Bogus is not a destination resort. That honor still belongs to Sun Valley.   And yet, what seems a lifetime in Sun Valley, it is difficult for me not to compare the two resorts. Bogus offers 1800 vertical, Sun Valley 3200 but while  Bogus skis fully on 2600 acres of mixed runs, bowls and glades, Sun Valley 2600 acres relies more on groomed runs and bowls.  An argument can be made that Bogus receives more snow than Sun Valley but Bogus doesn’t offer Sun Valley’s extensive snow making.  Bogus also opens early and stays open late with night skiing