Montana’s Yaak Valley was one of the most remote places Emma Vigers had ever set foot. Tucked into the corner of the Idaho state line and the Canadian Border, this heavily forested region offered the type of solitude Vigers had been looking for in a thru-hike. She was just a few weeks into her trek along the 1,200-mile Pacific Northwest Trail, which connects the Continental Divide in Montana to Washington’s Olympic Coast. At dusk, Vigers and her hiking partner were plodding uphill toward a mountain summit, when they noticed a large set of grizzly paw prints underfoot. Reluctant to continue walking, they decided to stop and make camp. Vigers would spend the remainder of the evening wondering if they truly were alone.

Thru-hikers like Vigers should certainly be bear aware on the PNT, but some say it’s the grizzlies who are most at risk. A local conservation group known as The Yaak Valley Forest Council (YVFC), claims thru-hiker traffic threatens the area’s small, isolated population of 25 grizzlies.

“We don’t have any bears left to spare,” says Rick Bass, a nature writer and founding member of the YVFC. Bass has been advocating for the Yaak Valley for decades, even writing a book that speaks to the solitude and vulnerability of this remote region. “Being a place so far off the map, nobody knows to even protect it,” he says.

Only about 60 to 70 people currently attempt to thru-hike the PNT each year, but activists worry the trail will experience the type of growth that has plagued other popular routes. Some long-distance trails like the Arizona Trail and Pacific Crest Trail have seen over a 90 percent increase in thru-hikers in the last decade. Upwards of 3,000 people attempted to hike the Appalachian Trail this year. According to the YVFC, numbers like this would have a devastating effect on the grizzlies.

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Standing in a thick patch of pine and fir, mosquitoes swarming her face, Anna Ortega lifted a radio receiver into the air, angling it back and forth as she listened for the blip, blip, blip of a mule deer collar.

A zoology graduate student at the University of Wyoming, Ortega was tracking Deer 255, a doe that had braved road crossings, fences, wolves and other hazards to get here. Somewhere in this forest near Island Park, Idaho, a dozen miles west of Yellowstone National Park, Deer 255 was laying over for the summer.

Armed with bear spray, binoculars and datasheets, Ortega and two field assistants followed the blips among trees dappled with early July sun. They picked their way through knee-high grass and shrubs, the occasional snap of a twig underfoot as startling as a slamming door. The blips were strong and clear: Deer 255 was close.

While not all mule deer migrate, some travel a hundred miles or more between their summer and winter ranges. With a one-way migration of 242 miles, Deer 255 holds the record for the longest-documented land migration in the Lower 48, traveling even farther than her herd-mates, all of which winter in the Red Desert of southwest Wyoming.

Her trek to Idaho from the Red Desert exemplifies the surprises scientists are still encountering with this well-studied ungulate. And as mule deer populations throughout the West remain below target levels, it underscores the need to protect the wide tracts of landscape that sustain migrating wildlife.

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Lawmakers in Idaho voted to adopt new science standards for the state, but chose to remove key references to climate science.

The vote came just days after public testimony from students and teachers overwhelmingly supported including climate science in the public school standards.

“At what point do we trust our teachers?” Rep. Sally Toone, a Democrat who voted against removing the climate references, said during a House Education Committee hearing. “We have great teachers and they have spent thousands of hours on this document.”

The document, known as the Idaho Content Standards, includes key metrics for students from kindergarten through high school. Lawmakers voted to remove all supporting science content included in the standards, which often went into more detail about human-caused climate change.

The lawmakers also voted to remove one paragraph from the state’s performance standards that asked students to be able to “describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.” Examples of how fuels affect the environment included “air pollution from burning of fossil fuels.”

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Pack your bags, astronomy lovers. Idaho is now home to the United States’ first International Dark Sky Reserve.

The International Dark Sky Association, an Arizona-based nonprofit that advocates against light pollution, designated an area covering more than 1,400 square miles as the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve. The reserve includes the Sawtooth Range and other wilderness areas that offer brilliant views of the night sky.

An International Dark Sky Reserve is “a public or private land possessing an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and nocturnal environment that is specifically protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural, heritage and/or public enjoyment,” according to the association’s website.

Land in the Idaho reserve is mostly managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which supports the designation. The Forest Service has reduced light pollution from its facilities, but said mitigation by private interests would be voluntary.

The Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve is the third-largest of 12 such reserves worldwide. Others include Aoraki Mackenzie in New Zealand and Exmoor National Park in England.

Idaho’s reserve was granted “gold tier” status, which means the area’s night sky conditions are so pristine that only a small amount of light pollution intrudes. Night sky views are so clear that interstellar dust clouds of the Milky Way galaxy are visible.

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Tom Lopez created the Grand Slam peaks of the Boise, Idaho, area as a four-step training regimen for his summer climbs. Others have latched onto the concept as a goal unto itself, or a circuit worth completing against the clock.

“When I redid the website a couple of years ago, the Grand Slam peaks page disappeared,” said Lopez, a retired attorney, mountain climber and guidebook author (“Idaho: A Climbing Guide”) who lives in Boise. “I immediately got an email from someone going, ‘Where’s that page?’”

The trailheads for the four peaks are less than an hour from town, with one actually starting within the city limits. Their summits range from 4,987 feet to 6,336 feet, which makes them accessible earlier in spring than the more daunting mountains that climbers like Lopez attack in the summer.

Cervidae Peak — just north of Lucky Peak Lake — is short but relentlessly steep. Kepros Mountain, in the Danskin Mountains east of town, is a long walk on mostly rolling terrain. Lucky Peak is a challenging hike, right out of a residential neighborhood, with the most-established trail. And Mt. Heinen is the hike that will test your resolve with its terrain and sometimes-fuzzy trail.

“It’s good, varied terrain,” Lopez said. “You can start with Cervidae in February. The best way to get in shape is to hike … I always felt like once I did Heinen, I was ready for doing the big peaks.”

Lopez has hiked to each of the peaks at least a dozen times since he began tracking his ascents in 1990. Heinen is his favorite, but he’s climbed Cervidae — by far the quickest climb on the list — the most.

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The immense stone garden that is traversed continually changes. Early on, the ground surface contains enough soil interspersed between rocks to support a mix of native vegetation such as sagebrush, bunchgrasses and the emergence of forbs. Halfway to the top, any evidence of soil had disappeared and only the occasional sagebrush and fern bush persists. Soon after, only dark lava rock remains.

While this shield volcano was only one of many across the Snake River Plain responsible for spreading liquid basalt across the landscape, Black Butte has several features that separate it from the rest. The eruption of Black Butte occurred only 10,000 years ago.

The most dramatic sight encountered comes at the summit itself. Rather than finishing out with an indistinct crest, much of the top of Black Butte is missing. Instead, you find a crater-like basin with several stair-stepped levels that lead downward from the west to its deepest point 200 feet below the rim.

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Aircraft N2UW has flown through all kinds of weather. The twin-propeller plane is sleek, petite, and so packed with scientific gear for studying the atmosphere that there’s barely room for two passengers to squeeze into its back seats. Monitors show radar reflections, gas concentrations and the sizes of cloud droplets.

The plane has flown through tropical rainstorms in the Caribbean, through the gusting fronts of thunderheads over the Great Plains, and through turbulent down-slope winds that spawn dust storms in the lee of the Sierra Nevadas. But the four people on board Aug. 29, 2016, will never forget their flight over Idaho.

The plane took off from Boise at 4 p.m. that day, veering toward the Salmon River Mountains, 40 miles northeast. There, the Pioneer Fire had devoured 29,000 acres and rolled 10 miles up Clear Creek Canyon in just a few hours. Its 100-foot flames leaned hungrily into the slope as they surged uphill in erratic bursts and ignited entire stands of trees at once.

But to David Kingsmill, in the plane’s front passenger seat, the flames on the ground two miles below were almost invisible — dwarfed by the dark thing that towered above. The fire’s plume of gray smoke billowed 35,000 feet into the sky, punching into the stratosphere with such force that a downy white pileus cloud coalesced on its underside like a bruise. The plume rotated slowly, seeming to pulse of its own volition, like a chthonic spirit rising over the ashes of the forest that no longer imprisoned it. “It looked,” says Kingsmill, “like a nuclear bomb.”

Undaunted, Kingsmill and the pilot decided to do what no research aircraft had done: Fly directly through the plume.

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The area of the Sawtooths is an outdoor destination that attracts outdoor enthusiasts of all stripes; people come to camp along the lower elevation lakes to explore the canyons and valleys or to scale the summits of the more than 50 peaks over 10,000 feet that are in the vicinity.

There are no shortage of hikes to take in the Sawtooths. Go for a day hike or spend a few days on a longer backpacking trip into some truly remote areas. Fall Creek Canyon, in the Pioneer Mountains, is a wonderful place to go for a one-day or overnight trip.

Want to make the most of your experience in the Sawthooths?

Here are 16 ways to take on the backcountry along with some inspiration on where to go…

The news is no surprise to groups that have been posting signs and trying to educate hikers for several years regarding the consequences of feeding the peak’s mountain goats and letting them lick hikers’ arms and legs for salt.

“The temporary closure is intended to allow time for the goats to find other sources of food beyond the handouts provided by hikers, and to reduce their willingness to approach humans,” said Jason Kirchner, forest spokesman. The Forest Service is working with the Idaho Fish and Game Department to address the situation and improve public safety, he said.

The steep, 3 1/2-mile Trail 65, which just recently reopened after being closed in August by wildfire activity, is known for its expansive views over Lake Pend Oreille and frequent mountain goat sightings.

“However, due to humans often enticing the goats to come close by offering food, or even allowing the goats to eat from their hands, the goats are becoming habituated to humans and occasionally are behaving aggressively in an attempt to obtain human foods,” the announcement said.

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“It’s probably among the most popular forest access in all of the Idaho Panhandle,” said Jason Kirchner, spokesman for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. The closure, unprecedented in its size for this area, is necessary to protect public safety, Kirchner said.

“We’re not aware of ever needing an area closure this large before, but we’re also in a fire season where we haven’t seen this much fire on the landscape since 1926,” he said.

The public is barred from campgrounds, trail heads and day-use areas in the nearly 10-square-mile area northeast of Coeur d’Alene and north of Kellogg. Officials swept through the campgrounds asking people to leave, and barricades have been erected on forest roads.

For questions about campground reservations, go to www.recreation.gov or call (888) 448-1474. For questions about reservations at any of the rental cabins, call Barb Hansen at (208) 769-3050.

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