Boise RisingThe public platform of Boise Civic Trust
Our work / Summit & landscape

Table Rock.

Keep the mountain.
Care for the place.

Table Rock gives Boise a view of itself. Its future deserves the same care as the landscape that makes it extraordinary.

Boise Rising is developing a stewardship and protection project for Table Rock. Through Boise Civic Trust, the nonprofit behind this work, we’re shaping the project, assembling the team, raising the funding, and working through the landholder and public-agency relationships needed to move it forward.

Help advance the workExplore the idea
Table Rock’s summit and surrounding foothills at sunset
Table Rock, Boise · The existing landscape

The mountain
comes first.

The openness, stone, native high-desert landscape, and long views are the reason people come here. The work begins with protecting those qualities.

A clearer final approach, a comfortable place to pause, less visual clutter, and better care could make the experience more welcoming without turning the summit into an attraction built around buildings.

The cross remains untouched. The aim is careful improvement, with the landscape still doing most of the work.

The place today

A great view.
An unfinished arrival.

The approach and summit bring visitors into contact with gates, signs, fencing, and essential service infrastructure. Understanding those conditions is part of making a credible proposal.

The gated approach to Table Rock with multiple signs, overhead lines, and a gravel road beyond
A clearer approach, informed by access and service needs.
Two people walking at Table Rock beneath utility lines and communications towers
A summit experience shaped around the landscape and the people using it.
An early visual idea

What could care
look like here?

A defined path, low stonework, and native planting suggest a quieter arrival. The next step is to develop and test a concept against the site’s actual conditions.

Current Table Rock summit approach with a blocked gravel road, utility towers, power lines, fencing, and other service infrastructure dominating the landscape beneath an overcast sky.Concept of the Table Rock summit approach at sunset with native high-desert planting, a defined pedestrian path, and a low stone interpretive sign.
Drag the divider or use the arrow keys to compare.

Illustrative concept. Planting, path design, and changes to utilities require further study and coordination. This image is an early direction, not an approved construction plan.

The work underway

A founding concept
and protection package.

Boise Civic Trust leads the project’s development: assembling the professional team, working through land and authority questions, raising funds, and coordinating the concept and protection work.

A coherent summit concept

A preliminary site plan and clear visual studies that bring paths, arrival, native landscape, seating, and essential visitor needs into one considered whole.

The practical questions

Survey and base mapping, followed by targeted work on access, drainage, utilities, sanitation, and maintenance, to ground the concept in the site’s actual conditions.

Lasting protection

Clarify land ownership, public access, and stewardship responsibilities, and develop protection options with a practical route toward agreements and implementation.

The team is taking shape. A first survey quote is in hand, and the site-planning scope, professional roles, and overall budget are being refined. The first package will give landholders, agencies, funders, and the public a concrete concept and protection options to evaluate before deeper design and engineering.

Community voices

A project shaped
through conversation.

The Table Rock project has developed through Boise Rising Studios, public input, site visits, and conversations with people working in design, conservation, trails, business, history, and civic life.

  • Bill MullaneVP, Foundation for Ada/Canyon Trail Systems
  • Byron FolwellPrincipal, Byron Folwell Architect
  • Christopher HawkinsLandscape Architect
  • Clay CarleyOld Boise
  • Grant ShealyNeckar Coffee
  • Hannah Mae SchaefferIdaho for Good / HMK Impact
  • Heather EastmanIdaho Business for the Outdoors
  • Jared TalleyThe Nature Conservancy
  • Jeffery HolleyArchitectural Historian
  • Lisa O’FlahertyIdaho Conservation Corps
  • Melanie ViningIdaho Trails Association
  • Sam BlaineSouthwest Idaho Mountain Biking Association

These names reflect conversations that have informed the work and permission to be listed. They do not imply endorsement of a particular design, formal project participation, agency approval, or support for future construction.

Current funding priority

Fund the first
development package.

Support helps turn the vision into a coherent summit plan and workable protection options. Funding covers both Boise Civic Trust’s work to develop and carry the project and the outside professional work needed to ground the proposal in the landscape.

That means research, landholder and agency coordination, fundraising, team assembly, and protection strategy alongside survey and base mapping, landscape planning, technical analysis, and visualizations. Together, these give the project a foundation for public review, long-term care, and eventual implementation.

Give to Table Rock — Table Rock concept and protection work

Choose your one-time amount at checkout.

Secure checkout with Stripe. Gifts are received by Boise Civic Trust, Inc.

Prefer to support Boise Rising’s ongoing work?

A few useful questions.

Who is developing the project, and who decides?

Boise Civic Trust, Inc., the nonprofit behind Boise Rising, is the project’s civic developer. We hold responsibility for project formation, fundraising, team assembly, relationships, and moving the work forward. Qualified professionals carry the design, survey, engineering, and other technical work assigned to them.

Leading the project does not give us ownership of Table Rock or authority over its land. Landholders, public agencies, and other responsible parties retain their decision-making roles. The summit, approaches, roads, and surrounding lands have distinct ownership and responsibilities.

Is a design or construction project approved?

No. The project is in development and concept planning. No physical improvement, land transaction, access change, or construction project has been approved. Any future implementation would require the appropriate landholders, public agencies, technical review, funding, agreements, and public process.

What happened to the earlier study campaign?

The earlier Phase 1A research and mapping campaign has been replaced by this broader development package, which combines project leadership, professional concept work, and a path toward lasting protection.

Any gifts made under the earlier Phase 1A terms retain those terms. Please contact us if you have a question about an earlier contribution.

How can I contribute what I know?

Tell us how you use Table Rock, what you value, and what you think needs attention. Local experience helps identify the right questions.

Share your perspective