Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area
Public Land · Kuna, Idaho
Four hundred and eighty-five thousand acres of sagebrush plateau and basalt canyon along eighty-one miles of the Snake River, thirty-five miles south of Boise, holding the densest concentration of nesting raptors in North America. More than seven hundred pairs of fifteen species nest on the canyon walls each spring, and another nine species use the area seasonally - the cliffs give them ledges and the plateau above gives them a ground squirrel population dense enough to feed the lot. Congress protected it in 1993 and renamed it in 2009 for Morley Nelson, the falconer who spent decades arguing that these birds were worth a landscape.
Swan Falls Road, Kuna, Idaho, 83634, United States
Open year round, 24 hours, with no entrance station, no fee and no permit. ⚠ THE SEASON IS EVERYTHING HERE: the raptors nest from roughly mid-March to early June, and by late June the Piute ground squirrels that feed them have gone back underground and the young have fledged. Outside that window there is far less to see. DEDICATION POINT AND SWAN FALLS ARE REACHED FROM SWAN FALLS ROAD SOUTH OF KUNA; the road to Dedication Point is paved to the car park and Swan Falls is a steep paved descent into the canyon. ⚠ THE REST OF THE AREA IS UNMAINTAINED DIRT that becomes impassable when wet. There is NO VISITOR CENTRE, no water and no services anywhere inside. Nesting-season closures apply to some cliff areas and DRONES ARE PROHIBITED. Hunting is permitted in parts of the area under Idaho regulation.
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