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I remember seeing this movie as a kid when it came out in theaters and being awestruck by the scenery. In particular I really enjoyed the location where the town was. The area looked both beautiful and foreboding/eerie at the same time, and it really managed to stick in my head. I had known since around the time of its release that it was filmed in the Sawtooth Nat'l Recreation Area. Before moving to Boise I was on a roadtrip and drove southward from Stanley through the area looking for it, but no one I talked to really had a clue about where it was filmed precisely.
I had kind of forgotten about it in recent years, but it's on TV again as I type this, and I have renewed interest again given how close I am to the area now. Can anyone give somewhat specific directions to where they shot it in Sawtooth?
What a cool website! Have fun looking for the locations, Ramenfan. We go Western location hunting on a regular basis, and I didn't know about the Pale Rider location. We'll put it on our list!
Something you might find of interest in researching the area are these little known links at IMDB:
If you go here: The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) it will take you to a search engine where you can put in a specific area and see what films were shot there. Also, if you click on the letter "P" under the browse capability, it'll show you "Pale Rider." Clicking on that will take you to this page:
Ramenfan,
If you're going to Ketchum anyway, you may be interested in adding this "location" to your tour:
Steve McQueen's log cabin on 5 acres outside of Ketchum, "Last Chance Ranch"! He dreamed of opening a general store, "McQueen's Grocery," and said in an interview a short time before he died that all he wanted to do was to take his collections (cars, motorcycles, etc.) and go live in Idaho...
I haven't gone there myself yet, so I don't know the exact location, but here's an online pic of (supposedly) the log cabin. https://www.shutterpoint.com/Photos-ViewPhoto.cfm?ac=0&id=561531
(BTW, Elousv, this is the ranch gate I want! )
PS Happy Easter to all of you!
Last edited by Clark Fork Fantast; 04-12-2009 at 01:52 PM..
I've been looking for this info as well, and I think I'm getting close, thanks to Google maps. It's the location of the town that I want to get to. Just for the hike and to take some photos. I would imagine it must be accessible by some type of road? Just so they could have gotten all that material in and out of there? I mean, the caterer had to get there some how each morning, right??!
Pale Rider set location - Boulder, Idaho, off State Route 75
I've been looking for this info as well, and I think I'm getting close, thanks to Google maps. It's the location of the town that I want to get to. Just for the hike and to take some photos. I would imagine it must be accessible by some type of road? Just so they could have gotten all that material in and out of there? I mean, the caterer had to get there some how each morning, right??!
Pale Rider set location - Boulder, Idaho, off State Route 75
I can only offer general advice, but every single location we've ever hunted has had an access road, for that same reason: There's so much equipment to lug in that there's a limit to how out-of-the-way the location can be. Here's a method that might work: look at the movie stills or do a screen grab if you can, and locate some prominent background landscape feature. Then go to Google Earth, tilt the image and start looking for that landscape feature north of Sun Valley in the SNRA (I've actually used the same method when I was property hunting, so it's all good for something! ), keeping in mind that it has to be close to some road. The little embedded Google Earth cameras on Route 75 might also be of help. Try camera #14100 on 75. Very prominent, easily recognizable rock formations in the Boulder Basin, up the dirt road, NFD 158 Rd. Good luck!
From my recollections of the movie, Boulder and Silver peaks are frequently seen in the film. I think the town was set up in this area as well. However I'm pretty sure at least a few of the scenes were shot in the Sawtooth Valley, probably a little bit south of Stanley. I seem to recall Williams and Thompson peaks being visible in some of the range scenes.
Note that there is a ghost town call Boulder City in the basin north of Boulder Peak, however that area was not used in the movie.
Starting at 8:05-- is the mountain on the right Boulder Peak? If so, it appears (unfortunately) that there is more than one conceivable possibility. One is to take NFD 158 Rd. off of Highway 75 for roughly a quarter mile until you reach NFD 184 Rd. which takes a route towards the west side of the mountain as seen in the video clip while NFD 158 goes off to the east. The other possible route is Silver Creek Rd., which starts off roughly 3-4 miles to the west of NFD 158 but arches to the east the higher up you go. Up towards the terminus of each road, where the filming location would be more apt to be, the two roads are only about a mile apart from each other. If I have to resort to slowly driving up and down each road, I REALLY hope that the site isn't too far off of the road.
I'm thankful the site isn't on the way to Boulder City since I've read online that NFD 158 gets quite brutal further on up. Does anyone know if NFD 184 and Silver Creek Rd. have any issues? I drive a 4X4 pickup, but it has enough age/mileage on it where anything too extreme would cause some concern.
Welcome to City-Data.com forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with 700,000 other registered members. User profiles and some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your free account you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 15,000 posts/day about local topics and you will see fewer ads. 
Location hunting for Eastwood's "Pale Rider"
), keeping in mind that it has to be close to some road. The little embedded Google Earth cameras on Route 75 might also be of help. Try camera #14100 on 75. Very prominent, easily recognizable rock formations in the Boulder Basin, up the dirt road, NFD 158 Rd. Good luck!
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