The Sawtooth Valley is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, 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 ...

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 George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

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 Wyom ...

. 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 Ser ...

(SNRA) in the

Sawtooth National Forest Sawtooth National Forest is a United States National Forest, 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 United States Depart ...

. 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 within ...

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 c ...

and Smoky Mountains to the south. The valley contains the headwaters of the Salmon River, the city of

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

, 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 Recre ...

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 Redfish is a common name for several species of fish. It is most commonly applied to certain deep-sea rockfish in the genus ''Sebastes'', red drum from the genus ''Sciaenops'' or the reef dwelling snappers in the genus ''Lutjanus''. It is also app ...

Alturas Alturas (Spanish language, Spanish for "Heights"; Achumawi language, 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 ...

, Pettit, and

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 Thompson Peak may refer to one of these mountain peaks: *Thompson Peak (Arizona), a McDowell Mountains summit 20 miles from Phoenix with amateur and Maricopa County government radio towers accessible via a service road from Fountain Hills () * Thom ...

in the Sawtooth Mountains to the west. In 2017, the Sawtooth Valley was designated part of the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve.

References

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