Salmon Field Office

Located in the heart of the Rockies near the Idaho/Montana border, the Salmon Field Office, which manages almost 500,000 acres of public lands, provides spectacular scenery and great opportunities for adventure around every turn. The Salmon River, Bitterroot, and Lemhi ranges offer endless hiking, fishing, hunting and exploration opportunities. Hikers and nature lovers find scenic and rugged terrain in the isolated, often-overlooked Lemhi Range where elk, deer, mountain goats, moose and black bears are abundant.

The Salmon River meanders through the second-deepest gorge on the continent and is well-known as Idaho’s best steelhead fishing area, along with rainbow and cutthroat trout. Rafters enjoy scenic floating and fishing along the calmer stretches of the river near the town of Salmon, or tackling challenging whitewater (Class I-IV) on the stretch of river west of North Fork, Idaho.

The unspoiled 1.6-million-acre Bitterroot Range and Continental Divide serve as Idaho’s eastern border. This area was visited by the Corps of Discovery’s Lewis and Clark in 1805. Today, visitors can stand on the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail and see the same expansive view that greeted the Corps of Discovery. Salmon is the home of Sacagawea, and the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural, and Educational Center tells her story and the stories of the Lemhi Shoshone (Agaidika) people. 

The lands and waters in the Salmon Field Office were traditionally inhabited by the Lemhi Shoshone prior to European settlement. The BLM lands between Tendoy and Lemhi were part of the proposed Lemhi Reservation that Chief Tendoy worked so hard to secure for his people. Ultimately, the treaty to create the reservation was never ratified and the Lemhi Shoshone were moved to the Fort Hall Reservation in the early 1900s. 

As its name would suggest, Salmon is actively engaged in fish issues. Fish biologists work hard with local partners to create suitable habitat and remove fish passage barriers along several integral stream networks in the Lemhi valley drainage. Discovery Hill area, located right outside the town, is an up-and-coming recreation site offering a podcast tour, mountain biking, disc golf and everything in between. The office is currently working on finishing their travel management planning for the South Half of the field office.