The Lochsa River means "rough water" in the Nez Perce language. The beautiful river flows through the North Central Idaho mountains for 70 miles from its headwaters to where it flows into the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River in the Clearwater National Forest.

It was recognized by the U.S. Congress in 1968 as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Lochsa and Selway (the other primary tributary of the Middle Fork of the Clearwater) and their tributaries have no dams and their flows are unregulated.

In the spring the Lochsa is rated as one of the world's best for continuous whitewater. Kayakers and rafters run its more than 60 rapids between Powell and Lowell usually from April to June. Most are rated Class III-IV, depending on the flow rate. Difficulty can rise to VI when water is highest. Castle Creek is probably the most technical and largest of the rapids.

Long before the arrival of European Americans in the early 1800s, the Nez Perce people used the trail along the Lochsa to travel to the Montana plains to hunt. Kootenai and Salish people from Montana used the route to reach the salmon runs in the rivers of the Columbia Basin.

When the Lewis Clark Corps of Discovery traversed the area in 1805, they used the Lolo Trail going down into and out of the Lochsa Gorge, then continued along its north rim. They experienced tough conditions with early season snow and suffered from near starvation before meeting the Nez Perce on the Weippe Prairie.

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