Some places are best experienced vertically. The rugged Mallard-Larkins Roadless Area is one.
The Mallard-Larkins Roadless Area is a steep and wild area between the St. Joe and North Fork of the Clearwater rivers.
Here’s one example of the area’s exuberant inclines: the distance between the North Fork of the Clearwater River at Aquarius Campground to the top of Black Mountain is just four miles as the crow flies, but a gain of over one mile in elevation.
In that mile are several distinct habitats of mesic forests, stunning views, and remarkable solitude.
At the bottom of the North Fork Canyon, just 1,700 feet above sea level, the Aquarius Research Natural Area protects several examples of coastal-disjunct plants that have survived here since the last ice age. These include populations of red alder, sierra wood fern, Pacific yew, and banks monkeyflower. Here, underneath mossy red cedars, its easy to think you are on the Olympic Peninsula.
Further up is a different story. There are nine major peaks over 6,500 feet, rocky outposts above glacial cirques and alpine lakes. There are 38 named lakes in the area that lure visitors to their shores every summer.
Flowing through or on the boundary of the area are parts of three major river systems: the St. Joe, the Little North Fork of the Clearwater, and the main North Fork of the Clearwater, along with numerous fast-moving and crystal-clear streams, both large and small.
Management of this area is split between the Idaho Panhandle and Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. The 2025 NPCNF forest plan recommends the northern portion of the roadless area as wilderness; the potions near Elizabeth and Quartz Creeks are not.
The Mallard-Larkins Roadless Area is a heavily forested 260,000-acre wildland on the divide between the North Fork of the Clearwater and the upper St. Joe rivers. The area is remote, some 50 miles northeast of Orofino and 25 miles south of Avery, Idaho. The area is bordered by Idaho State Land to the west, private and public forest to the north, NF-303 to the northeast, the Upper North Roadless Area to the east, and the North Fork of the Clearwater River (Road 250) to the south.
The Mallard-Larkins is only a few miles east of the Grandmother Mountain Roadless complex and contains the Snow Peak Wildlife Management Area.
The roadless area is managed by the Idaho Panhandle National Forests on the northern side and Clearwater National Forest on the southern side.
A portion of the St. Joe River flows through the area in the northeast. In 1978, Congress designated 66 miles of the St. Joe as a Wild & Scenic River, including the portion in the roadless area. Most of the creeks of the area flow southward into the North Fork of the Clearwater River, which the USFS dropped from managing as a candidate Wild & Scenic River in 2025.
GEOLOGY
The northernmost of the roadless areas of the Clearwater Basin, little of the area is composed of batholith granites. Much of the area is much older metamorphic rock, with some formations over 2.6 billion years old. “Younger” formations from 1 billion years ago include feldspathic quartzite and subordinate siltite and argillite.
ECOLOGY
There are thirty-eight mountain lakes large enough to be named; the largest of these, at 35 acres, is Heart Lake. Although there are abundant rock outcroppings, talus slopes, and barren areas, much of the area is heavily vegetated. Plant life is extremely diverse and includes low-elevation coastal-disjunct rainforest communities and impressive pockets of old-growth western red cedar, western hemlock, and inland Western white pine.
Near Isabella Creek, old-growth alder, Pacific yew, and many different ferns thrive among ancient cedar giants. These coastal disjuncts are leftovers from an entirely different climatic regime that survive in the rainforest-like conditions of the North Fork Canyon. Several rare and sensitive botanical varieties are also found throughout the Mallard-Larkins area. Read more about the Aquarius Natural Research Area.
The thirty-eight lakes lure visitors every summer. The rivers and larger streams are ideal for many species of fish, including bull trout, westslope cutthroat, and introduced Kokanee salmon.
The flourishing wildlife communities range from elk, deer and moose, to black bears, mountain lions, and one of the largest populations of Mountain goats in Idaho. Mountain goats are sure-footed denizens of the high country, and very sensitive to human pressures, especially snowmobiling. These stark-white goats are also at risk from human-induced climate change.
Sensitive species such as fisher, wolverine, harlequin duck, Columbia spotted frog, Coeur d’ Alene salamander, and western toad find crucial sanctuary here as well.
DWORSHAK'S SHADOW
Dworshak dam, first known as the Bruce Eddy dam, was completed in 1973. Dworshak is among the tallest dams in America at 717 feet (219 meters). The dam has had profound and lasting impacts to the Clearwater, including the Mallard-Larkins.
Dworshak is located near Ahsaka, Idaho, about 40 river miles downstream of Aquarius. Many of the possible impacts of the dam were known well before it was constructed. Public push back against the dam emphasized the loss of winter range for elk and loss of connectivity for salmon and steelhead.
Despite some opposition, the dam was completed and extirpated one of the largest runs of salmon and steelhead in the country. Elk were likewise impacted, losing thousands of acres of winter range beneath the reservoir. The reservoir also drowned acres of Pacific disjunct cedar and red alder forest, of which the Aquarius Research Natural Area is but the small portion left.
The free-flowing North Fork of the Clearwater ends just west of the roadless area as the river reaches to slackwater of Dworshak Reservoir. The reservoir is a controversial part of landscape, as it supports invasive fish like smallmouth bass, and ended salmon and steelhead runs. However, because the water of the reservoir remains relatively cold, it is sometimes released to reduce river temperatures in the lower Snake and Columbia Rivers. Cold water is crucial for steelhead and salmon; water over 70 degrees is deadly for them.
The Mallard-Larkins area has a long history of support for wilderness protection. Already in 1969, a 30,500-acre portion of the high country characterized by abrupt summits and icy lakes was designated as the Mallard-Larkins “Pioneer Area”. Challenging and diverse terrain, blissful solitude, and humility amidst the wild landscape are readily found in this unparalleled, very special place.
Unfortunately, road-building and logging have reduced and degraded parts of the roadless area over the years, motorized vehicles have impacted the landscape, and there are proposals for mining and landscape scale prescribed burns. Ecosystem restoration is needed around the edges of the area.
