After we left the St. Joe we continued north to the Priest River area in the northern reaches of Idaho’s panhandle. Huckleberries continued to be prolific, as did the mosquitoes, and we spent our first night in the area inside the camper listening to thunder and avoiding the pesky bloodsuckers. The next morning we picked a few cups of huckleberries before we departed camp. They made a great second round of sourdough pancakes, and went into some homemade huckleberry maple breakfast sausage once we arrived home. Yum!
Our first stop was the trailhead for the Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars. Before you get to the grove you come to Granite Falls. Granite falls is a unique waterfall. It doesn’t fall directly vertical, but at more of a 45 degree angle, which had the effect of throwing the rest of the world off just a little bit. I have to keep telling myself that the trees are vertical, it’s the falls that are ‘off’.
As we made our way to the cedar grove we might have been transported to the Oregon coast. This region of the panhandle has some really lush forests evoking more of a rainforest feel than what you would expect of an interior forest. There seems to be a microclimate in this region that supports a forest you would normally find to the west of the Cascade Mountain Range.
After another hike through a similar forest later in the afternoon, we found a camp for the night. This one featured a few less mosquitoes so we could make it bearable to be outside in the evening with the addition of the thermacell, which was an absolute lifesaver on this trip. We sat back as the light faded from the tree tops and the Swainson’s thrush sang their songs.
The next day we made our way to Priest Lake so we could make the hike into Upper Priest Lake.
We decided to spend the last days of this trip in the high country of the Selkirk Mountains.
We camped at a high mountain lake and hiked into two others. In my book it doesn’t get any better than that.
We still have plenty to see in the panhandle region, but our planned time for this trip had run out. It was amazing to see things turn brown and dry as we travelled south to home, leaving the lush forests of the panhandle behind.
Here we go into those ‘dog days’ of summer heat. It may be time to head back to some high country!
