The Wood River Trail is the paved path that runs the length of the Wood River Valley, linking Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley. Locals just call it the bike path. The Blaine County Recreation District (BCRD) built and maintains it and describes it as a 20-plus mile paved, multi-use, year-round path. More paved branches reach into Sun Valley and the Elkhorn neighborhood, which brings the whole system to around 30 miles. From the Sun Valley end, the Hemingway Memorial is just off Trail Creek Road about a mile northeast of the Sun Valley Lodge. It is a bronze bust of the writer beside Trail Creek, dedicated in 1966, and makes an easy stop on a ride out that way. It is free to use in every season, and it is closed to motor vehicles.

Most of the route follows the old Sun Valley branch of the Union Pacific Railroad. BCRD built the trail on the abandoned rail bed in sections between 1984 and 1991. Voters approved a two-year levy in 2013 to rebuild and resurface it, and that work was finished over the summers of 2014 and 2015. Because it sits on a rail bed, the grade is gentle the whole way. The valley drops slowly from north to south, so riding from Ketchum toward Hailey and Bellevue is a long, easy descent, and the ride back north is a slow climb. Wind funnels up and down the valley and often matters more than the grade, so check it before committing to a long out-and-back.

This listing is pinned where the trail crosses East Croy Street on the east side of Hailey, a few blocks from Main Street. From here you can head north toward Ketchum or south past the airport toward Bellevue. The southern section runs close to Highway 75 through farmland. North of Hailey the path follows Buttercup Road past hay fields and the Valley Club golf course, and one stretch has a scale model of the solar system painted on the pavement. About 6 miles south of Ketchum it crosses the Big Wood River on the Gimlet Bridge, an 1894 steel truss railroad bridge that was moved here in 1914, carried Union Pacific trains to Sun Valley until 1981, and was converted for foot and bike traffic in 1984. It went on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Interpretive signs at the bridges and at Boxcar Bend cover the railroad history. Near Ketchum the path passes through two short tunnels, and its north end is at Hulen Meadows near the river.

The surface is asphalt, wide enough for two-way traffic, with wooden signposts at junctions and a lot of road crossings in town. Benches, water fountains, restrooms and emergency phones are spaced along the route. It gets used by commuters, road and mountain bikers, runners, walkers, parents with strollers, skateboarders and horseback riders. BCRD asks everyone to keep right except to pass and to give slower users the right-of-way, and it recommends helmets.

Dogs are welcome. BCRD asks owners to keep them under voice control or on a leash and to pick up after them, and there are bag dispensers and trash cans along the path.

E-bike rules come from the cities and the county, and BCRD does not set or enforce them. BCRD's board did pass a resolution in 2018 supporting e-bikes of 750 watts or less that top out at 20 mph on the county's multi-use pathways. Report unsafe riding to Blaine County Dispatch at (208) 578-3831.

In winter the path is not plowed. BCRD grooms it for Nordic skiing instead, about 32 kilometers from Hulen Meadows in Ketchum south to Gannett Road in Bellevue, and skiing it costs nothing. Walkers, snowshoers and fat bikers use it too.

If you only want to ride one direction, Mountain Rides runs free electric buses between Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley every day of the year. The buses have bike and ski racks on the front, first come first served, with a 55 pound limit per bike. E-bikes, tandems and bikes with child carriers are not allowed on the racks, so plan on riding both ways if you are on one of those.