The Sawtooth Valley is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

, in Blaine and Custer counties of central

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...

. About long, it is in

Sawtooth National Recreation Area The Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) is a national recreation area in central Idaho, United States that is managed as part of Sawtooth National Forest. The recreation area, established on August 22, 1972, is managed by the U.S. Forest S ...

(SNRA) in the

Sawtooth National Forest Sawtooth National Forest is a National Forest that covers 2,110,408 acres (854,052 ha) in the U.S. states of Idaho (~96 percent) and Utah (~4 percent). Managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it was originall ...

. It is surrounded by the Sawtooth Mountains to the west,

White Cloud Mountains The White Cloud Mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, located in central Idaho, southeast of Stanley in Custer County. The range is located within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) and partially ...

to the east, Salmon River Mountains to the north, and

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

and Smoky Mountains to the south. The valley contains the headwaters of the Salmon River, the city of Stanley, and community of Sawtooth City.Sawtooth National Forest. “Sawtooth National Forest” ap1:126,720, 1”=2 miles. Twin Falls, Idaho: Sawtooth National Forest, United States Forest Service, 1998.

Idaho State Highway 75 State Highway 75 is a two-lane highway that travels through the Sawtooth Valley of central Idaho. The highway's southern terminus is in Shoshone, and its northern is near Challis. It is designated as one of Idaho's scenic byways and provides ...

, also known as the Sawtooth Scenic Byway, transverses the valley's entire length. State Highway 75 enters the valley from the south at

Galena Summit Galena Summit is a high mountain pass in the western United States in central Idaho, at an elevation of above sea level. The pass is located in the Boulder Mountains, in the northwest corner of Blaine County, within the Sawtooth National Recr ...

and exits to the north near Stanley. Highway 75 was formerly U.S. 93, which is now routed through

Arco ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States an ...

. Sawtooth Valley contains several large lakes in the SNRA, including Redfish,

Alturas Alturas (Spanish for "Heights"; Achumawi: ''Kasalektawi'') is a city and the county seat of Modoc County, California. Located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California, the city had a population of 2,715 at the 2020 census. Alturas is ...

, Pettit, and Stanley lakes. Valley floor elevations range from just under near Stanley to over below Galena Summit. Elevations along the valley's borders reach at Castle Peak in the White Cloud Mountains to the east and at Thompson Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains to the west. In 2017, the Sawtooth Valley was designated part of the

Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve The Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve is a dark-sky preserve near the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, in the U.S. state of Idaho. It was designated on December 18, 2017 and is the first gold-tier dark sky preserve in the United States. The area wa ...

References

{{Authority control Landforms of Blaine County, Idaho Landforms of Custer County, Idaho Valleys of Idaho