North Fork Owyhee Wilderness is a protected backcountry in southwestern Idaho on the high basalt plateaus of Owyhee County, where the North Fork Owyhee River and other streams have carved sagebrush and grassland into canyons more than 1,000 feet deep. Created in 2009 as one of six new wilderness areas in Idaho’s Owyhee Canyonlands, it formed part of a major statewide expansion of protected land. Water is central to the area, with whitewater rivers and a section of the North Fork Owyhee included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The wilderness also supports diverse wildlife and is managed to remain undeveloped.