Bitterroot Valley - Preserving Diverse Wildlife and Western History

A New York-based hedge fund manager, Steven Saslow holds a consultancy role with Blackstone Group and focuses on advising hedge fund investments and mentoring young professionals. In addition to his work with Blackstone Group, Steven Saslow has a passion for the outdoors and regularly vacations in locales such as Sun Valley, Idaho. He frequently travels north from that community toward the Continental Divide and the Bitterroot Valley on the Montana border.

Known for its exceptional fishing and wildlife, the Bitterroot Valley stretches south from Missoula and is along the route of explorers Lewis and Clark, who traversed the United States in the early 19th century. The valley was inhabited early on by fur traders from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and in the 1840s, Jesuit missionaries settled the area. The valley was one of the last strongholds of Native Americans in the Rocky Mountains, and Salish tribe members still lived in traditional ways there until the 1890s. 

Today, the Bitterroot Valley has a vital role as a grassland and wetland preserve of diverse wildlife, including amphibians, reptiles, and dragonflies. Common mammals include whitetail deer, raccoons, beaver, meadow vole, and yellow-bellied marmot.

Idaho’s Salmon and Trout Rich Big Wood River

Steven Saslow is a longtime manager of capital market trading businesses and former New York hedge fund manager who engages with Blackstone Group as consultant. Away from Blackstone and his financial advisory duties, Steven Saslow enjoys travel and considers Sun Valley, Idaho, one of his favorite destinations. He is drawn to outdoor activities such as cycling, hiking, and fly fishing in locations such as The Big Wood River and the Salmon River.

Stretching 137 miles throughout central Idaho, The Big Wood River offers excellent rainbow trout fisheries and is also known for brown trout. Beginning as a fast-running alpine stream at headwaters near the 11,000-foot-high Galena Peak, the walk-and-wade river has abundant wild fish.

The river broadens and slows at the juncture of the North Fork, 10 miles north of Sun Valley, and the 25-mile stretch to Bellevue is the most popular among anglers. South of Bellevue, fishing continues with brown trout becoming more prominent as the river winds toward the fertile Snake River Basin plains. The largely freestone river finally reaches a single dam before petering out in the desert of southern Idaho.

Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia

After a successful career as a financial senior executive, Steven Saslow retired from The Blackstone Group but remains a consultant, and also enjoys mentoring and training a new generation of analysts and associates. A frequent traveler throughout his career, including his time at Blackstone, Steven Saslow considers Barcelona as one of his favorite cities.

Located on the northeastern coast of Spain facing the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona is Spain’s second-largest city. In an area settled by Phoenicians and Greeks, and later by Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, Moors, Franks, and finally won by the Catalans, Barcelona boasts of over 2,000 years of architectural gems.

The most popular architectural monument in Barcelona, and perhaps all of Spain, is the La Sagrada Familia, with approximately 2.8 million visitors each year. The Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family was commissioned by the Spiritual Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph, and construction began on St. Joseph’s day, March 19, 1882.

The task of designing and constructing the temple ultimately fell to Antoni Gaudí. He designed a temple 60 meters wide, 95 meters long and able to seat 13,000 people. It features a central 170-meter tower and 17 more towers 100 meters or more high. The work became Gaudi’s obsession, and when funds were depleted, he used his own money and raised more however he could.

When Gaudí died, only one tower, one portal, the crypt, and the apse walls were completed. Work continued and design changes made. Today, visitors are struck by its awesome verticality and the method used to mimic medieval cathedrals. Mired by controversies, construction continues, and the project is expected to be completed perhaps in the 2040s, over 150 years after it began.