1998 Idaho, Montana & Yellowstone Trip

The following is a trip that I took in the Spring of 98. It was the week after Memorial Day and I decided to take five days to travel in Idaho. It's nice going to work at 5:00 in the morning as lunch time is at 10:00 and it makes for getting alot done on vacations if you'r used to getting up at 4:00. It's light out in the spring/summer at this time of year and able to get alot ot traveling done by car. I left work at lunch time on Thursday and would eat lunch at Scott's Dairy Freeze in North Bend which is the area I lived my first 5 years of life. Snoqualmie and North Bend is a nice little area to visit with Mt Si being able to be hiked in three hours and Snoqualmie Falls being a nice place to take pictures. This is also where they filmed Twin Peaks which lasterd on TV for s. The place is really expanding now as they are building new houses, new ski resorts, and golf courses in the vicinity. I left North Bend and drove over the Snoqualmie Pass where the new ski resorts will be going in withen the next couple years. Kechelus Lake is on theeast side of the pass and it is a large water reservior which you can find many stumps from cut trees during the fall and low water level. These trees were cut when they built a dam years ago. This is also nice scenary with snow still on most of the mountains throughout the pass. I would drive past Ellensburg and Moses Lake on my way to Spokane which would take four hours as they have raised the speed limit to 70 mph in eastern Washington. Spokane is the only large city in eastern Washington as it has a rural city atmosphere. It can be a nice place to live if someone wants a little of both urban and country style living.

My intention was to visit all of Idaho as I have never taken the time to see what the state is like. I went into Post Falls and took a picture of the falls before going into Coeurd'alene. This town is much larger than when I was here last, the day St Helens erupted. It has a population of 24,000 and is a tourist town with Lake Couerd'alene being close to Spokane and the interstate highway. I had decided that I would come here on my way back home on Monday. I stopped at the tourist area in town and told them that I had five days in Idaho and wanted to know what to visit in the state. He suggested Northern Idaho and then Glacier Park or even Yellowstone if I was going all the way to southern Idaho. He had said that alot of southern Idaho was just farm land and not much to do. Thats when my plans started changing real fast as I started thinking about making a loop thru Montan, Wyoming and eventually back to southern Washingoton and home. I continued north on 95 out of Courd'alene and would drive up to Lake Pend Orerille which was the largest lake in Idaho and more isolated than Lake Coeurd'alene. There were also many litlle small communities that lived here in Northern Idaho with many boathouses in a little commmunity called Bayview. I coudln't tell if most were vacation or permanaent resiednts but it did seem to be a slower pace of life. I took a couple pictues of the lake & boathouses and then continued north.

I next went to Sandpoint which is at the northern part of the lake. This is another tourist town that sit on a lake, but is more secluded and laid back then Couerd' alene. I was getting hungry about now and would eat out on the balcony of a mexican restaurent. Dinner was only $9 including two beers as I would then continue driving west on highway 2 to Preist River and then north on 57 up to Priest Lake. There were little communitites around here as it was mainly rural area in forested land. I would drive all the way north to Nordman which was a small community on the water. It was now about 9:00 and starting to get dark as I parked along a gravel road. When I got out to look around I noticed some big prints that looked like elk. I never did hear anything but I did sleep in the truck instead of pitching the tent. I drove 450 miles today