About the Area
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The Sawtooth National Forest has two distinct geographic units separated by the Snake River Plain — Idaho’s “potato belt,” which relies on the forest for the water it needs to irrigate this important agricultural region.
South of the Snake River Plain, the forest is part of the basin and range geologic province of western Utah, Nevada and southeastern Idaho. Here, a series of north-to-south faults break the country into mountain ranges separated by continuously widening basins. The climate is desert-like, but the ranges capture snow, storing the moisture for later release into the surrounding basins of the Snake River Plain. Lower elevations host sagebrush and juniper that blend into aspen, lodgepole pine, and fir at higher elevations. Mule deer, elk, pronghorn, and sage grouse are common on this part of the forest.
Two-thirds of the forest lies north of the Snake River Plain, where towering granite mountains are sliced by unfathomable rivers. These mountains are actually part of five ranges — the Sawtooths, Boulders, White Clouds, Smokys, and Pioneers — which are part of the famous Idaho Batholith. High alpine lakes abound in this rugged country. Rivers are lined with colossal cottonwoods and graceful willows. The uplands are blanketed with lodgepole pine, and Douglas and alpine fir, interspersed with whitebark pine and meadows strewn with wildflowers in the summer. Wildlife is plentiful with elk, deer, mountain goats, wolverines, wolves, black bear, cougars, and a wide variety of birds, including sandhill cranes, osprey, and eagles. With the exception of the grizzly bear, just about every species that was here in the days of Lewis and Clark is still here today.