Coeur d'Alene

 

Friday, June 28 Day 67 

 

It was a perfect night for sleeping last night.

 

I took another walk to the river before we left this morning. I feel kind of like those trout that have the instinct to know how to find their way back home.  This is my country.  I was born in the Northwest (Idaho) and raised in Washington.  I have a strong desire to put a hook and line into the water just like my Dad and I used to do when I was growing up.  The smell of the pine, the whisper of the wind through the trees, the dew on the tall grass... The river takes on the color of the trees and sky here, a bright green this morning.

 

 

We wanted to take a look at this bridge which we can see from the campground.  It is too low for us to go across, so we turn back and catch the highway upstream.

The forests are bright green here, with beautiful yellow wildflowers growing alongside.  We don't see a "Welcome to Idaho" sign here, but rather this Idaho Panhandle National Forests sign, letting us know we are in another state. 

Thompson Pass has been heavily mined and dredged, and these are the slag piles that line the river.

We see a sign to Prichard Tavern, and since we have a friend named Prichard, we have to stop and see what it's all about.  Looks like the local happenin' place!

We are now following the Coeur d'Alene River.  It is  a gravel bottom, is shallow, crystal clear, and gently running.  There are home sites along the other side of the river and cabins all along.  

We pass this mill pond as we reach the bottom of the pass.

All of a sudden we come off Forest Road 9 and onto I-90.  We are minutes away from Coeur d'Alene.  It's hard to realize, after 630 miles of Montana, that the Idaho panhandle is only 43 miles across!

This is such a spectacular lake, and today is perfectly clear.  It has always been one of my favorites!

We stopped for lunch and took a walk down to the waterfront, where people were enjoying the seldom-seen 90 degree weather. 

Including these two girls who were carrying paddle boards down to the lake.

We enjoyed the town of Coeur d'Alene, and the sidewalk art.

I spotted this billboard for a reading that Patty Duke will be giving in a few weeks.  I'm sure it will be a marvelous performance.

More artwork - this time an Elk.

We don't spend much time in Coeur d'Alene, but we could have.  It is only a few miles to the border, and all of a sudden, we are in Washington!  This is state number 28, for those of you who are counting!