Boise National Forest

The Boise National Forest is a playground for horseback riding, canoeing, fishing, whitewater rafting, kayaking, hiking and hunting, and with an America Outdoors outfitter, your trip will be enjoyable! 

The Boise National Forest is located north and east of the city of Boise, Idaho.

Size: about 2,612,000 acres

Topography: Elevations range from 2,600 to 9,800 feet. The mountainous landscape developed through uplifting, faulting, and stream cutting. Most of the land lies within the Idaho Batholith, a large and highly erodable geologic formation.

Major rivers: Boise and Payette Rivers; South and Middle Fork drainages of the Salmon River.

Conifer forest covers most of the Boise National Forest. Tree species include ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, lodgepole pine, grand fir, subalpine fir, western larch and whitebark pine. Shrubs and grasses grow in the non-forested areas. Wildflowers splash color in both forests and shrub-land.

The Forest contains large expanses of summer range for big game species like mule deer and Rocky Mountain elk. Trout are native to most streams and lakes. Oceangoing salmon and steelhead inhabit tributaries of the Salmon River.