Sawtooth Range (Idaho)
| Sawtooth Range | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Thompson Peak |
| Elevation | 10,751 ft (3,277 m) |
| Coordinates | 44°08′30″N 115°00′36″W / 44.141533°N 115.009969°W |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 43 mi (69 km) N/S |
| Width | 25 mi (40 km) E/W |
| Area | 678 sq mi (1,760 km2) |
| Geography | |
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| Country | United States |
| State | Idaho |
| Range coordinates | 43°57′12″N 114°59′26″W / 43.9533°N 114.9906°WCoordinates: 43°57′12″N 114°59′26″W / 43.9533°N 114.9906°W |
The Sawtooth Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in central Idaho, United States, reaching a maximum elevation of 10,751 feet (3,277 m) at the summit of Thompson Peak. It encompass an area of 678 square miles (1,756 km2) spanning parts of Custer, Boise, Blaine, and Elmore counties, and is bordered to the east by the Sawtooth Valley. Much of the mountain range is within the Sawtooth Wilderness, part of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Sawtooth National Forest.
There are 57 peaks with an elevation over 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the Sawtooth Range, all falling between 10,000 to 10,751 feet (3,048 to 3,277 m) on Thompson Peak, the highest point in the range. Another 77 peaks fall between 9,000 and 10,000 feet (2,700 and 3,000 m).
Climbs range in difficulty between the 9,150-foot (2,790 m) Observation Peak, a Class 1 hike, and 8,980-foot (2,740 m) King Spire, a rock route rated Class 5.10 on the Yosemite Decimal System.
The northern Sawtooth Range formed from the Eocene Sawtooth batholith, while south of Alturas Lake the mountains formed from the Cretaceous granodiorite of the Idaho Batholith. The Sawtooth Range has a history of alpine glaciation, but while no surface glaciers exist today, perennial snow fields and rock glaciers remain, usually on north or east facing slopes. There have been 202 perennial snow fields mapped in the Sawtooth Range. The Sawtooth Range was last extensively glaciated in the , but glaciers probably existed during the Little Ice Age, which ended around 1850 AD. Evidence of past glaciation given remnants of the glaciers such as glacial lakes, moraines, horns, hanging valleys, cirques, and arêtes.
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