The Last Bus Home From Ketchum Just Got Earlier. Here's What Still Fits Before It.

Starting Monday, Oct. 5, Mountain Rides ends late-night service on the Valley Route and the Blue Route. The Idaho Mountain Express reported the change as an 11:30 p.m. stop. On the new weekday Valley Route timetable, though, 11:20 p.m. is when the last southbound bus pulls into Clover & Gannett in Bellevue. The same bus leaves Main & 4th in Ketchum at 10:41 p.m.

If you live in Hailey, Woodside or Bellevue and ride up for a show or a lecture, plan around 10:41. Until now the last bus left Ketchum around midnight. Starting next week it leaves about an hour and twenty minutes earlier, so a 7:30 curtain is tight and a 5:30 talk is easy.

The Times That Matter Now

Mountain Rides has posted preview schedules marked "Effective October 5th, 2026" on each route page. Here are the last weekday southbound Valley Route stops, old and new:

The old Ketchum times are estimates. The current timetable lists the midnight departure from Dollar Circle and the Hailey arrivals, and the ride between them takes the same time on the new schedule. The new 10:30 p.m. bus also stops at Hospital Dr @ St. Lukes at 10:46, Hwy 75 & East Fork at 10:51, and along Woodside Boulevard from 11:06 to 11:10. The weekend Valley schedule is on its own preview page, so check it before a Friday or Saturday night out.

The Blue Route runs between Warm Springs and Elkhorn Springs, with stops at Main & 4th, Sun Valley Road & East Ave and the Dollar Mountain base area. It loses even more late service. Starting Oct. 5, its last trip leaves Warm Springs Base at 10:30 p.m. and Elkhorn Springs at 11:00 p.m. Under the current schedule, it runs an 11:30 p.m. trip from Warm Springs and a midnight return from Elkhorn, plus a Friday and Saturday trip at 12:30 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. Those weekend runs end with the change.

Why the Evening Got Shorter

The change comes from the budget. The Mountain Rides board unanimously approved its fiscal 2027 budget after losing about $325,000 in federal funding. According to the Express, the loss came from a change in the formula the Idaho Transportation Department uses to divide a lump sum of federal money across the state. Executive Director Wally Morgus said the agency would carry at least $165,000 of unspent fiscal 2026 money into 2027, and cutting late-night service is part of the plan to make that money last. The operations budget for fiscal 2027 is $5,011,240, down from $5,100,875 in 2026.

Morgus described the cut as having a small upside:

"It caused us to go back and seriously take a look at our route structure, our schedule, and really look for 'Do we have unproductive runtimes, etc.?'"

Some of the savings go back into daytime service. Mountain Rides spokeswoman Andrea Hernandez told the Express the Valley Route will run every 30 minutes at peak times where it doesn't already. She also said the Hailey Route will drop two midday trips: the 11:55 a.m. northbound and the 12:25 p.m. southbound.

Ridership on all routes is down from last year. Morgus told the board he thinks Highway 75 construction has made commutes longer, so more people are choosing to drive. "If I'm behind the wheel, at least I'm controlling my destiny," he said, describing how those drivers think. Hailey Mayor Martha Burke, who sits on the Mountain Rides board, said the drop felt counterintuitive with gas prices rising. "You would think more people would choose to ride the bus," she said. Morgus said he hopes riders will adjust their schedules and keep taking the bus. Neither Mountain Rides nor the Express named a replacement late-night shuttle.

What a 7:30 Curtain Means Now

Many evening events in Ketchum start at 7:30, and most of their listings don't say when they end. With a midnight bus, that didn't matter. With the last bus at 10:41, a 7:30 show leaves about three hours for the performance, intermission, the walk out and the walk to the stop. That's usually enough. But if a show's run time isn't listed, call the venue before you count on the bus.

Talks and screenings that start at 5:00 or 5:30 are easy. You can eat downtown afterward and still have time to spare. The calendar for the next eight weeks has plenty of these.

October and November, Checked Against the 10:41

All the Ketchum events below are near the Main Street stops unless noted. Sun Valley events use the Dollar Circle stop, where the last southbound bus leaves at 10:30.

1. Tuesday, Oct. 6. "The Kite Runner" screening at The Community Library, 415 Spruce Ave., runs 5:30 to 7:45 p.m. That leaves almost three hours before the bus. The Argyros, at 120 S. Main St., has "Delusions and Grandeur" by Karen Hall at 7:30 p.m. the same night, with no end time listed.
2. Wednesday, Oct. 7. Art on Film shows "Frida" (2024) at Merlin's Magic Lantern from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. The film runs 1 hour 27 minutes.
3. Thursday, Oct. 8. Enrique Chagoya talks with Paul Mullowney at the Sun Valley Museum of Art, 191 5th St. E., at 5:30 p.m.
4. Friday, Oct. 9. The Trailing of the Sheep Festival's Sheep Tales Gathering, "Basque Food In The West: There to Here and Then to Now," starts at 7:00 p.m. at The Argyros. If you'd rather stay in Hailey, the FREE HUB mountain bike film fest runs 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Liberty Theater, 110 North Main Street.
5. Saturday, Oct. 10. The festival concert, "Molly in the Mineshaft," starts at 7:30 p.m. at The Argyros. Earlier that day, the free Hailey Folklife Fair takes over Roberta McKercher Park. You can spend the afternoon there and catch an early-evening bus up to Ketchum.
6. Thursday, Oct. 15. Museum Passport presents "Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago" at 5:30 p.m. at the museum. The Sun Valley Jazz & Music Festival runs Oct. 15 through 18, but its nightly schedule hasn't been posted yet.
7. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 22 and 23. The Ballet Sun Valley Fall Festival performs at The Argyros at 7:30 p.m. both nights.
8. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 29 and 30. Warren Miller's "Days Off" plays at the Sun Valley Opera House on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 30 at 6 and 9 p.m. The 6 p.m. Friday show is the safest bet for bus riders. The 9 p.m. show would have to end by 10:30 for you to catch the last bus from Dollar Circle.
9. Thursday, Nov. 12. Judith Freeman lectures on "The Crick" at 5:30 p.m. at the museum.
10. Thursday, Nov. 19. An evening tour of the exhibitions "Lucy Raven: Level Distance" and "Jim Mangan: The Crick" runs 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The list has a clear split. Six of the Ketchum and Sun Valley events start at 6 p.m. or earlier and end well before the last bus. The 7:00 and 7:30 Argyros nights are all in October and mostly don't list end times, so those are the nights to ask the box office about run time. The 9 p.m. Warren Miller show is the only event here that the new schedule clearly makes hard.

What Stays the Same

All Mountain Rides routes are still free. The Valley Route still connects Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley. It no longer goes into Friedman Memorial Airport. Mountain Rides directs riders to its new airport route. On weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., you can also transfer to the Hailey Route if you tell the Valley driver when you board.

Winter service is coming. The Silver Route, between Sun Valley Village and River Run, is scheduled to run from Nov. 26, 2026 through Apr. 18, 2027. Mountain Rides hasn't published a full 2026-27 seasonal timetable yet. Until it does, the Oct. 5 schedules are the ones to plan around. For the next eight weeks, a bus rider's evening in Ketchum ends at Main & 4th at 10:41 p.m.

At Corey Graham SIR, we keep track of how getting up and down the valley changes from season to season, because it shapes daily life in Hailey and Bellevue as much as anything on a property sheet. If you're weighing a move up or down the valley and want a local's read on what each commute really looks like, let's talk.