Authoritative Guide to Hunting Turkeys in the Idaho Panhandle

I never fathomed hunting turkeys in chukar country. As I tried to catch my breath, the view down the canyon was nearly vertigo-inducing. Flax-hued mountains rose perpendicularly from the river, challenging my perception of my surroundings.

With the number of turkeys we were seeing working the drainages, it didn’t matter how tired or short-winded we were; our sole intention was filling our tags. As I crossed a drainage, a shot rang out as my buddy ended his hunt for a creamy-white-tipped Merriam’s tom. Two weeks later and 2 hours to the north, I’d hike out of a Pacific Northwest rainforest with my own longbeard over my shoulder, taken among the mountain cedars and yews.

If you’ve never considered northern Idaho as a turkey hunting destination, it’s time to stretch your horizon—and your legs—because this steep country is teeming with birds. And with tags relatively easy to come by, perhaps the only thing holding back a DIYer from a visit to the northern reaches of the Spud State is knowing where to start. With that in mind, here are some jumping-off points for a public-land gobbler hunt in the Idaho Panhandle.

SOUTHERN SPOTS

An old friend once told me, “When God created Idaho, He demonstrated His wrath upon the landscape.”

Proof can be found in the aptly named Hells Canyon (and the national recreation area of the same name), one of the most rugged landscapes I have ever encountered. Running the Snake or Salmon river in a jet boat is a great way to explore the area and access the benches above the rivers that lead into the canyon’s remote side drainages. The area holds legions of turkeys and the country is beautiful, but also dangerous.

Accessing from the Riggins side along Highway 95, there are decent roads that lead through the area from Seven Devils north to Pittsburgh Landing. At the south end of the area, the Seven Devils Mountains are managed by the Wallowa-Whitman and Nez Perce national forests. As you move north through the canyon, public lands turn more to state and BLM management but still offer good access and turkey numbers. There are remote dispersed camping opportunities as well as forest service campgrounds, so make sure to check your map or onX. Along Highway 95 and the Salmon River, there are several developed campsites with facilities.

At the north end of the canyon, just south of Lewiston, is the Craig Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA). It is a massive complex of lands comprising properties owned by multiple public and tribal entities. A management agreement among the different groups allows for the parcels to be managed as a single unit for the benefit of wildlife and public use. Primitive backcountry camping is available throughout the WMA, but campgrounds with facilities are available at Lake Waha and Soldiers Meadow Reservoir. Again, the area is steep and rugged with many open faces and deep drainages, especially on the BLM lands closer to the Snake and Salmon rivers.

Up higher on the forested sections, the landscape remains arduous but the forest ecosystem is more accessible and variable with riparian areas, good understory and right-of-way corridors that turkeys enjoy frequenting. Good numbers of birds can be located from the rivers to the mountaintop, so it is a dealer’s choice of how and where to hunt.

NORTHERN NOOKS

The northen Idaho Panhandle near Lake Pend Oreille is the antithesis of southern Idaho and may be the closest thing to heaven-on-earth for any sportsperson. The mountains around the lake are mostly coniferous forests managed by the Coeur d’Alene, Kanisku and Kootenai national forests.

While the area is vast, birds are plentiful along the lake and in the forests, especially along open riparian areas, right-of way corridors, early- to mid-seral burn areas and regenerating logged areas. A fun way to hunt is to cruise the shoreline in a boat and spot-and-stalk the birds. Trolling for lake trout is a fun diversion while cruising and glassing.

Dispersed camping is available throughout the forest, and more formal campgrounds dot both shores of the lake. Whiskey Rock Bay and Green Bay campgrounds offer majestic views of, and access to, the lake. There are some discontinuous parcels of lands enrolled in Access Yes!, the state’s program that opens private lands to public usage, to hunt near the lake. Most of these lands are held by logging companies and have been or are currently being logged, but they can be sneaky-good honey holes. Camping is not allowed on these parcels.

The Pend Oreille WMA is also worth exploring. It’s another large, discontinuous tract of state lands with camping. Birds can be found on many of the parcels.

Farragut State Park and WMA is a majestic locale that looks out on Lake Pend Oreille and holds good turkey numbers. Because it’s a state park, shotgun hunting is not allowed; however, archery hunting is permitted for the first 15 days of the season. The park offers full-service camping, so a hunter can choose to hunt the park and WMA solely or use it as a base camp to explore the areas around Lake Pend Oreille. For those who don’t want to pitch a tent, the city of Coeur d’Alene is about a 30-minute drive.

The Coeur d’Alene WMA is a large, discontinuous tract of lands that stretch along the riparian bottomlands of the Coeur d’Alene River from approximately Cataldo to Harrison. The CDA WMA is managed by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Largely a mix of wetland habitats and small lakes, the WMA was developed to protect and enhance waterfowl habitat and increase waterfowl production, but the WMA provides high-quality habitat for upland birds as well, with the largest upland parcel on the Thompson Lake section, which consists of forested and pasture habitat and even includes food plots.

There are copious amounts of BLM, National Forest, Idaho Department of Lands (IDL), and Idaho Access Yes! Program lands adjacent to the WMA. The large tracts of continuous IDL parcels south of the WMA hold good populations of birds, especially along creeks and open side drainages. The discontinuous public-access parcels are primarily owned by logging companies, and logging operations are often conducted concurrently with turkey season. Previously logged areas are in early- to mid-seral regrowth, offering great understory habitat with plentiful old-growth roosting trees. These areas hold good turkey populations that can be found along drainages, open riparian areas, open logging areas and side hills, and within the dense, regenerating understory shrubs on hillsides and ridges. Dispersed camping is available on the Coeur d’Alene National Forest on the north side of the WMA and on IDL lands on the south side of the WMA. Developed camp sites are available at Killarney, Bull Run and Rose Lakes, which offer fantastic vistas of the northern Idaho mountains juxtaposed with the Coeur d’Alene River.

If you’re lungs and legs are ready for a workout, consider the Idaho Panhandle as your next turkey hunting adventure destination. With over-the-counter general tag availability, bountiful bird numbers, unbelievable vistas and various public lands to explore, you’re sure to discover why Idaho is called the Gem State.

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• This article was featured in the April 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.

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