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 remote solitude, 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, nicknamed the River of No Return, meanders through the second-deepest gorge on the continent and is well-known for outstanding fishing for anadromous (ocean-going) steelhead, 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 2.4-million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness serves as the area’s western border, and is the largest contiguous wilderness area outside of the state of Alaska. These lands were visited by the Corps of Discovery’s Lewis and Clark in 1805 and remain largely as they were over 200 years ago. 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 Sacajawea, 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. Field office staff engage with local partners to create suitable habitat and remove fish passage barriers along several integral stream networks in the Lemhi valley drainage. The Discovery Hill area, located right outside the town, features miles of world-class mountain biking trails, along with a guided podcast tour, disc golf, wildflower viewing, hiking and everything in between.