Castle Peak, at 11,815 feet, is the highest summit in Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains and the highest point in the Idaho Batholith. In central Idaho, it stands within the Cecil D. Andrus–White Clouds Wilderness in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, near Chamberlain Basin, Castle Lake, and Merriam Peak. Trails reach its vicinity, but no maintained trail goes to the summit, which is most easily reached by a class 3 scramble from Chamberlain Basin. The mountain also became part of a major Idaho conservation struggle when a proposed open-pit molybdenum mine at its base helped shape the 1970 gubernatorial race and the creation of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in 1972.