Grays Lake is a wetland in Idaho, United States. It lies in Bonneville County and Caribou County. Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge was established in the area in 1965. Ranching (cattle, sheep, hay production) is the predominant use of surrounding lands. A variant name was "John Grays Lake". The lake was named after John Gray, a Canadian trapper.

General

Grays Lake lies within the Caribou Range of the Rocky Mountains in southeast Idaho, and is at the western edge of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The valley lies about 30 miles north of Soda Springs, Idaho and about 70 miles southwest of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. At the heart of the valley is a large, 22000 acre shallow montane marsh, composed primarily of hardstem bulrush and cattail with scattered small ponds. This wetland system provides important habitat for breeding sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans, Franklin's gulls, white-faced ibis, dabbling and diving ducks, a variety of shore- and grassland birds, as well as habitat for molting and fall-staging waterfowl and cranes. The area is significant for its high density of breeding sandhill cranes and as a reintroduction site for trumpeter swans. The rich wet meadow edges of the marsh provide foraging and nesting habitat for a diversity of water birds each year. Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge encompasses much of the richest wetland habitat within the valley. It was established in 1965 to protect and restore habitat for waterfowl production, sandhill cranes, and other wildlife. In the 1970s and 1980s the refuge served as the focus of an effort to establish a second wild population of endangered whooping cranes. Currently, the refuge's goals are to enhance natural ecosystem functions to support a diversity of water birds and other wildlife.

Data

Climate

Dale Bitner is a Remote Automated Weather Station located in Gray, Idaho, on the eastern edge of Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Dale Bitner has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), bordering on a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc).

Habitat and plant communities

Wildlife

Water

Geology

Access and wildlife viewing

Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge