Cascade, Idaho

On the southeast shore of Lake Cascade, the town of Cascade was originally a lumber camp with a large Boise Cascade sawmill in town. That sawmill was closed in 2001 and the local economy took a dive. It started to resurrect with the opening of the Tamarack Resort in 2004 (although Tamarack seems to be experiencing financial difficulties, including a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed on February 20, 2008). With Lake Cascade State Park nearby, the area does have a lot of promise as a year-round vacation destination. A large part of Valley County is contained within the Payette and Boise National Forests with the eastern boundary of the county well within the limits of the Frank Church-River of No Return Widerness. There's also more than 400 miles of snowmoble trails here, more than 250 miles of which see regular grooming. It seems there's also a number of local hot springs, including the recently developed Gold Fork Hot Springs. The North Fork of the Payette River is becoming a regular whitewater rafting destination and Highway 55 through Cascade is now part of the Payette River Scenic Byway.