Salmon-Challis National Forest
National Forest · Salmon, Idaho
Four and a quarter million acres of east-central Idaho, one of the largest national forests in the lower forty-eight, made from the old Salmon and Challis forests and established in 1908. It holds Borah Peak, the highest point in Idaho, the whole of the Lost River Range behind it, more than seventy-five miles of the Wild and Scenic Salmon River, and the greater part of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. At the foot of the Lost River Range is a fault scarp several metres high left by the 1983 Borah Peak earthquake, which is about as fresh a piece of geology as you can walk up to in the United States.
1206 South Challis Street, Salmon, Idaho, 83467, United States
Open year round with no entrance station and no fee. ⚠ THE SEASON IS THE CONSTRAINT: high trails hold snow into July, most side roads are unploughed from November, and the practical high-country season is mid-July to mid-September. THE SUPERVISOR'S OFFICE IN SALMON keeps weekday office hours and closes on federal holidays; district offices at Challis, Clayton, Mackay, Leadore and North Fork keep their own and several are seasonal. FREE SELF-ISSUE WILDERNESS REGISTRATION is at the trailhead boards. ⚠ RIVER LAUNCHES ON THE MAIN SALMON AND THE MIDDLE FORK ARE PERMITTED BY ADVANCE LOTTERY on recreation.gov in the control season. Campgrounds are a mix of first-come and reservable. FIRE RESTRICTIONS AND CLOSURES ARE ROUTINE FROM JULY and arrive without notice.
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