written and photographed by Hayden Seder

For a small town, Sun Valley has a wide variety of ice cream options, from year-round shops to seasonal stands to locally made flavors available for purchase. With the summer heat in full swing, it’s time to learn about the best spot for grabbing a scoop, cone, or shake to satisfy your ice cream cravings.

The Sweet Spot

Located next to Ramen Cowboy (and under the same ownership) is The Sweet Spot, a Japanese-inspired ice cream shop serving taiyaki ice cream and a variety of imported candies, treats, novel beverages, and savory snacks. Taiyaki ice cream is a popular Japanese style of ice cream that uses a crispy, mochi fish-shaped cone to hold the ice cream rather than a traditional waffle cone. These delightful-looking cones are made on a griddle behind the counter, so you can see your fish-shaped cone coming to life as you wait. The shop offers classic flavors as well as more adventurous Japanese ones, like ube, and non-dairy options are available as well. From the ice cream cone–shaped lights to the cone itself to the shop’s outdoor courtyard, practically every moment of eating ice cream at this shop is memory (and Instagram) worthy.

Leroy’s

Located in the heart of Ketchum, in Town Square, is an unassuming little ice cream stand called Leroy’s. Founded by Leroy Kingland in 2005, this seasonally operating stand serves up ice cream May through October seven days a week (1–10pm), serving as a summer stape for locals and tourists alike looking to beat the heat with a sweet treat. Leroy’s serves up classic ice cream flavors, like strawberry and vanilla, as well as more adventurous flavors, like Cowboy Crunch and Huckleberry. They also offer sorbets, lemonades, floats, and a variety of cones, toppings, and mix-ins to customize your scoops. But that’s not the only sweet thing about this small gem. The ice cream is made locally using milk from Cloverleaf Creamery, a Buhl-based farm, helping support local farmers and small businesses. Additionally, 100% of Leroy’s proceeds are donated to the area’s local schools, and all employees of the stand are students from one of the Wood River Valley’s schools. Since its opening two decades ago, Leroy’s has donated over $100,000 to schools and local programs.

The Chocolate Foundry

A Sun Valley Village institution for many years, The Chocolate Foundry is a one-stop shop for sweets and snacks, including delicious soft service ice cream, fudge, licorice, and a variety of novelty candies. This old-fashioned candy store serves ice cream in a variety of ways, from  frosty floats to milkshakes and yummy sundaes. Choose your favorite and then take it with you as you stroll the many shops and sights of the Sun Valley Village.

Mountain High Creamery

A newcomer to Ketchum, Mountain High Creamery opened in summer 2024. Owners Corley Hughes and Andrew Naugle moved their family to the area from Seattle and decided the best way to connect with their newfound community was by opening a local business—an ice cream shop. Located in a historic cabin in downtown Ketchum, Mountain High Creamery is open year-round, with ample indoor and outdoor space for celebrating milestones big and small. Their soft serve has standard chocolate and vanilla available at all times, but other flavors rotate weekly, like huckleberry or blueberry muffin. There are a variety of toppings for the soft serve, including sprinkles, mini marshmallows, pretzels, graham crackers, maraschino cherries, granola, almonds, coconut flakes, and more. In addition to this rotating menu of high-quality soft serve, Mountain High Creamery also has a house-blend hot coca, homemade liege waffles, and other sweet treats.

Toni’s

Ketchum’s longest running local ice cream supplier is Toni’s, a small-batch ice cream company created by local Toni Bogue. While Toni’s doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar location, this local favorite can be found at various grocery stores and restaurants throughout the Wood River Valley, including Atkinson’s, the Grill at Knob Hill, Village Market, and the Powerhouse; in an ice cream vending machine on the second floor of the Limelight Hotel; and often in the small freezer transported by bicycle around many local events. Toni started her ice cream company in 2000, after creating an ice cream for Sushi on Second when their long-time employee in charge of making ice cream quit. She took a liking to the job and began creating ice cream when not working at her other jobs, spending years working round the clock to turn ice cream making into more than a hobby. Today, you can find all manner of Toni’s flavors in local stores, which are made in batch releases of about forty pints and follow the whims of the season, ingredient availability and Toni’s imagination: mango lime with chili, circus animal (made with those pink and white cookies), blackberry cobbler, and peanut butter cap’n crunch are just a few of the whimsical flavors to have appeared over the years.

Smiley Creek

If you’re heading up north to hike the Sawtooths, enjoy the beach at Redfish, or explore the town of Stanley, do yourself a favor and stop at Smiley Creek Lodge on the way, a historic stop on Highway 75. In addition to serving up delicious lunch, the Lodge has a year-round ice cream parlor serving up ice cream cones and legendary milkshakes, including their signature huckleberry flavor.