Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness

Few places in America, and nowhere outside of Alaska, provide a wilderness experience to match the sheer magnitude of the Frank Church-River of No Return, the largest contiguous unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System in the Lower 48. This area combines the old Idaho Primitive Area, the Salmon Breaks Primitive Area, territory on six national forests, and a small swath of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Senator Frank Church played a key role in the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, and his name was added to this Wilderness in 1984, shortly before his death. It is a land of clear rivers, deep canyons, and rugged mountains. Two white-water rivers draw many human visitors: the Main Salmon River, which runs west near the northern boundary, and the Middle Fork of the Salmon, which begins near the southern boundary and runs north for about 104 miles until it joins the Main. Reaching 6,300 feet from the river bottom, the canyon carved by the Main Salmon is deeper than most of the earth's canyons, and this fast-moving waterway has been dubbed the River of No Return. In the northeastern corner the Selway River flows north into the nearby Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. The Middle Fork, the Selway, and nearly all of the Main Salmon are Wild and Scenic Rivers, rushing below wooded ridges rising steeply toward the sky, beneath eroded bluffs and ragged, solitary crags. Trout fishing usually rates from good to excellent. The Salmon River Mountains dominate the interior. Without a major crest, these mountains splay out in a multitude of minor crests in all directions and rise gradually to wide summits. East of the Middle Fork, the fabulous Bighorn Crags form a jagged series of summits, at least one topping 10,000 feet, surrounding 14 strikingly beautiful clearwater lakes. Hiking up from the rivers into the mountains brings sudden elevation changes. Great forests of Douglas fir and lodgepole pine cover much of the area, with spruce and fir higher up and ponderosa pine at lower altitudes, broken by grassy meadows and sun-washed, treeless slopes. This is dry country: as little as 10 inches of precipitation falls near the rivers, and as much as 50 inches may fall on the mountaintops, though much of that is snow. Despite the dryness, wildlife abounds — as many as 370 species have been identified in a single year, including eight big game animals. Wildfire has been allowed to play a more natural role in recent years, and tens of thousands of acres have burned without human interference, producing a mosaic of vegetation from severely burned timber stands to lightly burned grass slopes and understory. Thirty-two Forest Service roads lead to 66 trailheads, and a network of 296 maintained trails — approximately 2,616 miles worth — provides access to this seemingly endless area, crossing rivers and streams on 114 bridges. Despite the extensive trail system, an amazing 1.5 million acres remains trail-free. This is a paradise for horsepackers. Small planes are allowed to land on several primitive airstrips dating back to the days before wilderness designation, and jet boats are allowed on the Main Salmon. Dozens of outfitters offer float, jetboat, horsepacking, backpacking, and ski trips.