Clearwater Mountains

Mountain range in northern Idaho, part of the Northern Rocky Mountains.They rise, in the south, to around 2,740 m/9,000 ft and include parts of the Nez Percé, Bitterroot, and Clearwater national forests (covering a total area of 7,290 sq km/2,815 sq mi).

The Clearwater Mountains are bounded on the south and west by the Salmon River and on the east by the Bitterroot Range. A major watercourse within the range is the Clearwater River (length 145 km/90 mi long). Formed by the confluence of its Middle and South forks at Kooskia, this river flows north-northwest past Orofino, then west to the Snake River at Lewiston. Its main tributary, the North Fork, rises in the Bitterroot Range at the Montana border and flows 190 km/120 mi west and southwest to the main stream north-northwest of Orofino. In 1973 it was impounded some 6 km/4 mi above its mouth by the 219 m/717 ft-high Dworshak Dam, which created the 89 km/54 mi-long Dworshak Reservoir, an important leisure facility. The granitic Clearwater Mountains lie mostly in Clearwater and Idaho counties, and contain deposits of gold, silver, lead, and copper.