8/3/07

Off the Beaten Path in the Silver Valley

Today Raymond Pert, Inland Empire Girl and myself went off the beaten path and did some hiking up the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. There accounts of the trip are here, here and here.

We drove to the Kingston exit on Interstate 90, and followed the River Road up past Prichard, past the Shoshone Base Camp to a sign that told us to turn off to see Fern Falls and Shadow Falls. You drive about 4 miles to the parking lot, and it is your typical unpaved forest service logging type road with a special feature of a kind of washboard type of cement pylons across the road to help with water I guess. We arrived at the parking lot, and headed up the trail.
Here are some shots from this hike.




Then we headed toward Murray, and went to the Settler's Grove of Ancient Cedars. Some of these trees are over 1,000 years old. It is a very peaceful, calming place to hike.


Both hikes are very easy and would make a good day trip for anyone in the area. Both places would make wonderful opportunities for beautiful photographs. Both trails get pretty steady use, but not crowded at all, are are very clean and free from garbage, (except the idiots who had a campfire and left glass beer bottles and a cardboard Bud Light box next to the fire sight.)

Both places are hidden Silver Valley treasures I'm sure you would enjoy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

what kind of camera do you use? these are great pictures! thanks for sharing them! :)

Christy Woolum said...

I am just glad you can't see my dust/dirt covered legs in that picture. :)

Pinehurst in my Dreams said...

:( I didn't make it up the river this year, but had a lot of things on my plate! I will enjoy the pictures of your trip, and think about the good times I have had up there.

Ah, much better now.

Carol Woolum Roberts said...

anonymous--I'm glad you liked the pictures. I use a Canon Powershot G2 4.0 megapixel camera. It is a step up from your typical point and shoot digital camera, and has more features. It has been a great camera for over 3 years, and I've been very pleased witht he results.

IEG--Most of the dust was gone by the time this pic was taken!!

PIMD--I enjoy being on the upper part of the North Fork because it isn't so crowded up there, and is much more peaceful.