THE PLACE
Meadow Creek Roadless Area (RA) is an unprotected watershed that is part of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. It contains nearly the entire Meadow Creek basin, a critical watershed for salmon, steelhead, westslope cutthroat, and bull trout.
At 215,000 acres, it is the largest possible addition to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness (SBW) and a strong candidate for wilderness designation.
Meadow Creek is located directly east of Elk City, Idaho, bounded to the east by the SBW. The northern boundary is the American River road (FS Road 443), near the confluence of Meadow Creek and the main Selway River. The southern border of the RA is the Magruder Corridor, a road that loosely follows the Southern Nez Perce Trail, used for centuries by the Nimiipuu to travel between the Clearwater Basin and the Bitterroot Valley in present-day Montana. That road separates Meadow Creek from the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
Visitors to the confluence of Meadow Creek and the Selway may wonder — where are the meadows? The lower-elevation northern portion of the roadless area (accessible via the Selway River Road east of Lowell) is incredibly steep terrain. As you head south (and gain elevation), you reach the headwaters of Meadow and Bargamin Creeks. These headwaters are very rare in the American west; because they were not carved out by glaciers in the last ice age, deeper soils and flower-filled meadows were preserved — hence the name.
ECOLOGY
With elevations ranging from 1,800-8,200 feet, this spectacular landscape is drained by waterways that feed into the Wild & Scenic Selway and Salmon Rivers, as well as the South Fork Clearwater River. Running Creek, a tributary of the Selway, enters the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness near Parachute Ridge, while Bargamin Creek, a tributary of the Salmon, enters the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness near the Southern Nez Perce Trail.
Western red cedar and grand fir are prominent in creek bottoms throughout the area, with ponderosa pine and Douglas fir found mid-slope, and lodgepole pine and sub-alpine fir at the highest elevations. Payson’s milkvetch, Idaho douglasia, candystick, clustered lady’s slipper, banks monkeyflower, and evergreen kittentail are Region One sensitive plant species. Pacific yew trees can be found within the 500-acre Warm Spring Creek Research Natural Area (RNA), located near the confluence of Warm Springs Creek and Running Creek.
The geology of Meadow Creek is unique. The headwaters of Meadow Creek proper were never glaciated. Thus, the meadows in the upper stream system were not scoured, as were most high elevation mountain meadows.
The Meadow Creek Roadless Area is considered the most important fishery of any roadless area on the Nez Perce portion of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. Due to intact habitat and pristine water quality, healthy populations of westslope cutthroat, steelhead, rainbow trout, and bull trout exist throughout the drainage. Summer Chinook still make their journey from the ocean to the clean and cold tributaries within this roadless area.
Gray wolves, wolverines, fishers, and black bears inhabit Meadow Creek, with habitat available for grizzly bears and lynx. The status of the latter two species is unknown, although it is believed Canada lynx still inhabit the area. The roadless area contains important summer range for elk and winter range for moose, with mule and whitetail deer also finding forage in this highly productive and dense forest. The Coeur d’Alene salamander, the Columbia spotted frog, and the western toad can also be found by those who take the time to carefully and meticulously search for these rare species.
CONSERVATION HISTORY
The potential Meadow Creek holds when it comes to wilderness designation cannot be overstated. A portion of the region was protected as part of the old Selway Primitive Area prior to 1964. Even the Forest Service recognized the value of this area when studying it for wilderness potential in the 1970s. Unfortunately, politics interfered and recommendations by the Forest Service to protect the area as wilderness were overturned at higher levels. Despite public support, the area was not included as an addition to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness when the Central Idaho Wilderness Act was passed in 1980. That legislation established the River of No Return Wilderness and made an addition to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in the upper Selway River system. Meadow Creek roadless area, in conjunction with the neighboring Selway-Bitterroot and Frank Church-River of No Return wilderness areas, may well offer greater solitude, tranquility, and ruggedness than any other area in the Lower 48. Backpacking, day hiking, hunting, fishing, birding, and wildlife viewing opportunities are abundant in this primitive recreational paradise.
MANAGEMENT AND THREATS
The 2024 final draft for the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest Plan recommends the eastern 40% of Meadow Creek as wilderness, an improvement from the 1987 Nez Perce Forest Plan, which included none of the area. However, this draft plan outlines increased motorized use in other parts of the area, which would harm its sensitive wildlife and wilderness character. FOC advocates for the entirety of the roadless area to be designated as wilderness.
GETTING THERE
Please read our disclaimer before using any travel information on our site.
There are three main ways to access the roadless area.
DISCLAIMER: Any and all travel recommendations on this website or otherwise provided by Friends of the Clearwater (FOC) are not replacements for official navigation tools, nor does FOC guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of information. By continuing, the user takes full liability and responsibility for assessing the suitability of any maps, directions, or itineraries for his/her/their intended purpose. ALWAYS check with the Forest Service or other agency for road closures and exact directions. No maps or information provided by FOC are a substitute for up-to-date, high-resolution, maps. Web-based tools for navigation are unreliable in remote places - a quality GPS or map and compass are crucial. When traveling, always tell someone where you plan to go, how long you will be there, and when and how you will return. Remember to bring emergency essentials, and do not attempt recreation that is outside of your skill level.
Despite our best efforts, BLM recently allowed logging on the fringe of this roadless area. Our map has yet to be updated to reflect this development, though the change is minimal.
