The six national parks, reserves, historic sites, and monuments in Idaho contain a wide variety of interesting places and experiences. These include recreational areas, archeological sites, nature preserves and volcanic parks.

The parks

City of Rocks National Reserve

Designated as a National Reserve in 1988 and located in on the southern edge of Idaho near the Utah border (), this site is also known as the Silent City of Rocks. The park covers almost and is adjacent to

Castle Rocks State Park Castle Rocks State Park is a public recreation area encompassing in Cassia County, Idaho, United States. The state park is located in Big Cove at the base of Cache Peak in the Albion Mountains. It is next to the Albion Division of Sawtooth Na ...

. As its name implies, the area is notable for its rock formations and is largely composed of granitic rock; the park is a popular location for rock climbers, offering a variety of routes for climbers of different skill levels. At the time settlers began traveling through the area the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...

and

Bannock Bannock may mean: * Bannock (food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle * Bannock (Indigenous American), various types of bread, usually prepared by pan-frying * Bannock people, a Native American people of what is now southeastern Oregon ...

tribes inhabited the region. In 1826,

Peter Skene Ogden Peter Skene Ogden (alternately Skeene, Skein, or Skeen; baptised 12 February 1790 – 27 September 1854) was a British-Canadian fur trader and an early explorer of what is now British Columbia and the Western United States. During his many expedi ...

and his Snake River brigade of beaver trappers were the first Euro-Americans to note the City of Rocks. However, the lack of beavers in the area caused the area to be ignored until the 1840s, when immigrant wagon trains began traveling through the area along the

California Trail The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail f ...

during the summer migration season. In 1849, a party of settlers "encamped at the city of the rocks" on the

. Visitors can see marks on rock faces from axle grease. One immigrant described seeing distant rocks and said they were like "water thrown up into the air from numerous artificial hydrants." Since them the City of Rocks became a landmark for emigrants traveling along the

and Salt Lake Alternate Trail. File:City of Rocks NR view 072617.jpg, City of Rocks National Reserve File:City of Rocks Idaho Bath Rock NPS.jpg, Bath Rock File:Morning Glory Spire, City of Rocks NR.jpg, Morning Glory Spire

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

This national park and monument are located in central Idaho () along the Snake River plain. The park covers an area of and has an average elevation of The area contains different volcanic formations, basalt flows, and significant lava flows, tubes, and tree molds. Areas of

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

, and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

cover a total area of . An area within the preserve was named a national monument on May 2, 1924 and expanded by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

in 2000. It currently covers parts of Blaine,

Butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

, Minidoka, and

Power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

counties. The park was officially named Craters of the Moon National Preserve in August 2002. The park is jointly managed by the National Park Service and the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument

Located in south central Idaho (), running along the west bank of the Snake River, this national park is home to a large collection of Hageraman Horse fossils. This

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (geology), epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes t ...

site dates to the late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Hagerman Horse Quarry The Hagerman Horse Quarry is a paleontological site containing the largest concentration of Hagerman horse (''Equus simplicidens'') fossils yet found. The quarry is within Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, located west of Hagerman, Idaho, USA ...

''. The site contains many fossilized plants and animals and are considered some of the latest fossils from their era. In 1975, the archeological site was declared a

National Natural Landmark The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only national natural areas program that identifies and recognizes the best ...

by President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

. The visitor center and museum for the park is in the town of

Hagerman, Idaho Hagerman is a city in Gooding County, Idaho, United States. The population was 872 at the 2010 census, up from 656 in 2000. The area is noted for its fossil beds and the Thousand Springs of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. Hagerman is home ...

, located on the east side of the Snake river, opposite the park. Developed locations for visitors to the monument and park are two overlook locations, one of the Snake river, and one overlooking a section of the historic

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what ...

. File:HAFO FlowersRiver.jpg, Flowers River, Hagerman National Monument. File:Equus simplicidens mounted 02.jpg, Hagerman Horse Skeleton at Hagerman Visitors Center. File:Snake River at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument 2016-10-13 2313.jpg, The Snake River at Hagerman Fossil Beds

Minidoka National Historic Site

Located in south central Idaho (), this historic site remembers the 9,000+ Japanese Americans that were unjustly imprisoned at the Minidoka Internment Camp during World War II. The camp site was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on July 10, 1979. The site measures approximately . File:Barracks-group-shot1.jpg, Japanese-American prisoners at Minidoka. File:Minidoka National Historic Site (National Register of Historic Places).jpg, The Minidoka National Historic Site. File:Miin 21-1698a.jpg, Minidoka Japanese American Internment Camp (1943).

Nez Perce National Historical Park

Established in 1965 and consisting of 38 individual locations spread across Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Montana, the park preserves some of the lands originally home to the

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

tribe of Native Americans. The Nez Perce National Historical Park Visitor Center () is home to a museum about the Nez Perce and their history. Since the park is spread across such as wide area, it includes several distinct ecosystems, climates and histories, each of which impacted the life of the Nez Perce. File:Nezperceindians1895ish.jpg, Nez Perce Indians with Appaloosa horse (c.1895). File:Nez Perce National Historical Park NEPE2035.jpg, Nez Perce National Historical Park. File:Nez.Perce.Camp.Lapwai.1899.jpg, Nez Perce encampment (1899).

Yellowstone National Park

Established by Congress in 1872, Yellowstone was the first national park established in the United States, and covers an area of ; it is regarded by some as the world's first national park. Yellowstone is renowned for its geothermal landscapes and features; Old Faithful geyser is located in the park and is a key attraction at the park. Much of Yellowstone is situated on four overlapping volcanic calderas, collectively known as the

Yellowstone Caldera The Yellowstone Caldera, sometimes referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano, is a volcanic caldera and supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park in the Western United States. The caldera and most of the park are located in the northwest corn ...

. This vast underground system is responsible for the

volcanism Volcanism, vulcanism or volcanicity is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastics, and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the surface called ...

and geothermal activity at the park. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the last remaining large, nearly intact ecosystems in the northern temperate zone of the Earth. While the park is widely known for its geothermal landscapes, it contains a vast area of

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

forests. Yellowstone's bison herds make up the largest bison population in the United States and are notable for being one of the few bison herds that has not been altered by inbreeding with cattle. File:Buffalo grazing - Yellowstone National Park.jpg, Buffalo grazing at Yellowstone. File:RNS Yellowstone 13399u.jpg, 1938 poster from Yellowstone National Park. File:Ludwig Hohlwein, Yellowstone Park, 1910, poster.jpg, 1910 poster from Yellowstone National Park. File:Yellowstone Castle Geysir Edit.jpg, Geyser during an eruption. File:Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone National Park.jpg, Yellowstone National Park.

Notes

References

External links

National Park Service

National Parks in Idaho
Everything Everywhere.

{{DEFAULTSORT:National Parks in Idaho National Park Service areas in Idaho Natural history of Idaho