Bear Lake County, in Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Bear Lake County lies within the Eastern Idaho (Upper Snake River Valley) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bear Lake County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bear Lake County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Bear Lake County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bear Lake County — the short answer
Bear Lake County, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 132 days between hard freezes, across 624K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~132
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 624K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Bear Lake County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bear Lake County's 132-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Bear Lake County
Across a year, Bear Lake County accumulates about 1,313 growing degree days above 50°F, about 178 fewer than the middle Idaho county — ahead of 16 of Idaho’s 44 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bear Lake County
Across Bear Lake County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Bear Lake, Lago, and Broad Canyon are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.8, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bear Lake County
The USDA soil survey maps 76% of Bear Lake County as well drained — but another 17% drains differently: 6% somewhat poorly drained, 6% poorly drained.
Bear Lake is the most extensive named soil at 5% of mapped acres, then Lago (3%) and Broad Canyon (3%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bear Lake County
Each reading below is measured for Bear Lake County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bear Lake County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bear Lake County runs about pH 6.7–7.8, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBear Lake County runs about 132 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBear Lake County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Bear Lake County is in
Bear Lake County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Wyoming Basin (48%), Wasatch and Uinta Mountains (38%) and Middle Rockies (12%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Bear Lake County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bear Lake County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 132-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bear Lake County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What gets applied to farmland in Bear Lake County
USGS estimates 9,680 lb of 2,4-d on Bear Lake County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (9,639 lb) and Diuron (1,135 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bear Lake County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bear Lake County — 133 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Bear Lake County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bear Lake County
Closest first, across Bear Lake County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 13S 44E 15DDA1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 13S 44E 15DAD1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 13S 44E 23BBB1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- MONTPELIER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- UTAH POWER & LIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- TAPPER MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BEAR LAKE COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- BEAR LAKE MOTOR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- BEAR LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- WALTON FEED INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- JEFF'S 9TH ST CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SUBURBAN PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bear Lake County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Bear Lake County.
Total Sites
133
across Bear Lake County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Bear Lake County
Severity Distribution
across Bear Lake County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bear Lake County, two things run higher than the national average across Bear Lake County — Mining (22 sites) and Nitrate (64 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bear Lake County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Lake County average
Your land is one point inside Bear Lake County
Everything above resolves to Bear Lake County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 624K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Bear Lake County Average
Bear Lake County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bear Lake County
- ●One soil character for all of Bear Lake County
- ●Frost dates read at Bear Lake County's scale: May 12 to Sep 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bear Lake County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bear Lake County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bear Lake County, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bear Lake County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bear Lake County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Lake County average
How we know this about Bear Lake County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bear Lake County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bear Lake County
When does frost risk typically end in Bear Lake County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Lake County typically lands around May 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Jun 2.
How long is the growing season in Bear Lake County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bear Lake County sees about 132 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Sep 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 7, about 97 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bear Lake County?
The federal record around Bear Lake County is a meaningful one — 133 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (64), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.0 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Bear Lake County?
With about 132 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bear Lake County rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 160 to 188 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 12 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Bear Lake County's scale — its 5a band and its 132-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bear Lake County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Idaho's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bear Lake County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Bear Lake County's own scale — its own ~132-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 133 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bear Lake County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bear Lake County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~132-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bear Lake CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 133 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bear Lake County's boundary and the 624,467 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~132-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Bear Lake County spans, Wyoming Basin the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Bear Lake County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Idaho grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Idaho
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bear Lake County — the ~132 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bear Lake County's 624,467 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 133 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bear Lake Countyread your own land →