The Salmon River Mountains are a major

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

covering most of the central part of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

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 ...

. The range is over long and its boundaries are usually defined by the Salmon River and its large tributary forks. Part of the central

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

, the entire range lies west of the

Continental Divide of the Americas The Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Great Divide, the Western Divide or simply the Continental Divide; ) is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from t ...

and drains to the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

. The highest peak is White Mountain, at above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. There are five peaks over high, and there are three major subranges defined by other forks of the Salmon River: the West, Central and East Salmon River Mountains. The mountains are an extensive block-shaped

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

in central Idaho, with their western boundary defined by the Little Salmon River and the northern and eastern boundary marked by the main stem Salmon. It is a block-shaped region north-south and east-west, covering nearly . The West Salmon River Mountains lie between the Little and South Forks of the Salmon, the Central range is between the South and Middle Forks, and the East range is defined by the mountains east of the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Although the northwestern corner of the range is only about southeast of the river port of Lewiston, the Salmon River Mountains are often said to be one of the remotest areas in the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

. The southeastern portion of the range is bounded by the White Knob Mountains, Pioneer Mountains, Bould Mountains, and the basins of Marsh Creek, Valley Creek and Warm Spring Creek. The southwestern boundaries are formed by forks of the

Payette River The Payette River () is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 3, 2011 river in southwestern Idaho and is a major tributary of the Snake River. Its headwaters originate ...

, also a Snake River tributary. The height of the mountains gradually increases from west to east, sloping up towards the Continental Divide. The highest peak is West White Mountain in the eastern subrange, rising to . The ten highest peaks are all in the eastern subrange, while the highest peak in the central mountains is Big Baldy, at . The highest mountain in the western subrange is North Loon Mountain, at .

References

{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Idaho