The White Clouds trails are a small network of dirt singletrack on the sage hills just east of the Sun Valley Lodge, wrapping around the White Clouds nine-hole golf course and the homes above it. Most people start at Carol's Trailhead, across Sun Valley Road from the Lodge, where the Valley View Loop leaves the pavement and starts climbing. Another common start is a small parking area off Saddle Road south of the Lodge.

Sun Valley Company owns and maintains the trails and keeps them open to the public. One piece, the Sellgren Trail, crosses private ground on a public access easement that Ricky Sellgren donated and Wood River Land Trust now holds and monitors. The original trails were built by Chris Leman of Bigwood Backcountry Trails. The golf course in the middle, which opened in 2008, is a par 36 layout of about 3,600 yards, so expect to hear carts and the odd shout of fore from the lower trails.

The outer loop is about 4.2 miles with roughly 450 feet of climbing and the same coming back down. The high point sits near 6,240 feet and the low point around 5,940 feet. About three quarters of it is singletrack, and the tread is wide by local standards. Grades mostly run 5 to 7 percent with a few short pitches near 14 percent. MTB Project rates it easy to intermediate for riders, and Sun Valley calls it easy to moderate on foot, figuring about an hour and a half for the full loop. Named pieces include the Valley View Loop, the Fox Connector, Sellgren's, the Elk Trail and the White Cloud Loop, so it is easy to cut the outing short or stitch together something longer. Runners often go up Valley View for about 0.8 miles, turn right on Sellgren's and pick up the Elk Trail near the two mile mark. Visit Sun Valley also suggests a four mile loop that pairs the paved Trail Creek path with the dirt.

The views are the draw for such a short climb. Riding clockwise you look across at Griffin Butte above Adams Gulch. Going counterclockwise, Bald Mountain and the rooftops of Ketchum fill the view, and the Boulder Mountains show up to the north along the way.

Because the hills are low and face the sun, White Clouds melts out early in spring and stays dry late into fall, which makes it one of the first and last dirt rides of the year around Ketchum. There is almost no shade, so on summer days the morning and evening hours are the most comfortable.

Sun Valley lists the loop as dog-friendly, and MTB Project notes that the company asks for dogs to be on a leash. E-bikes are not allowed. The trails are shared by walkers, runners and mountain bikers, and families use them a lot, so ride at a speed that lets you stop for someone around the next bend.

In winter the White Cloud Loop becomes part of the Sun Valley Nordic and Snowshoe Center, which grooms around 37 kilometers of trail from its base at the Sun Valley Club. The center's report lists the White Cloud Loop at 1.5 kilometers. Snowshoeing here is popular, but it runs on the resort's system and snowshoers pay a trail fee at the center, so plan on buying a pass rather than walking out from the trailhead.