Topography of Elmore County

Elmore County is located in Southwestern Idaho. It is bounded on the north by Boise County, on the east by Blaine, Camas, Gooding, and Twin Falls counties, on the south by Owyhee County, and on the west by Ada County.

  Elmore is a large county covering more than 3,000 square miles. Approximately 60% of the county is mountainous. The remaining 40% slopes gently down into the Snake River plain. Elmore County has altitudes ranging from 2500 feet to over 9700 feet. Seventy percent of the county is owned by varying departments of the federal government including the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Bureau of Land Management. Approximately 22% of Elmore County’s lands are designated farm lands.

  The topography of Elmore County is extremely varied, from low elevation plains to high, steep mountainous terrain. The county is divided into two district provinces, the Northern rocky Mountain Province-Idaho Batholith, and the Columbia Plateau Province-Snake River Plain in the southern 1/3 of the county.

  High glaciated mountains in the northern province, especially the area north of Atlanta, are dotted with several hundred glacial lakes. The terrain is very steep, rocky, and rugged, and much is granite rock covered with alpine vegetation.

  The Snake River Plain supports both irrigated agriculture and spring-fall grazing for cattle and sheep. The major limitation to further expansion of agriculture in this area is water. Soils also are a limited factor in a few sections of the Snake River Plain.