Palouse Divide, located about 1.5 hours south of Coeur d’Alene, is part of the Idaho Park N’ Ski system within the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. It is a beautiful drive to this area, with an abundance of rolling hills and mountains in the backdrop. Volunteers groom eighteen miles of Palouse Divide cross-country trails for both classic and skate skiing. There is a designated snowshoe trail as well as opportunities to explore off-trail and simply trekking off to the side of the ski tracks. The parking area is not a regular parking lot, so parking is a bit tight.
From the truck, we excitedly began the climb up the designated snowshoe trail. Much to our surprise, the entire path was completely packed down from prior snowshoers. It is a very rare event for us to snowshoe in someone else’s tracks. About halfway in, we came across the North-South Ski Bowl, and an abandoned chair lift. It was once an “upside-down” ski area developed by the US Forest Service and originally owned and operated by Washington State College (now known as Washington State University).
At the top of the snowshoe trail, there is a small warming hut and an intersection for a handful of ski trails (the distance from the parking lot to the hut is roughly 1.1 miles). At that point, we decided to break our own trail and venture down a short forest road that ended at a game trail. We would have continued, but we could not see an opening in the trees to be able to do so. After trekking back up to the hut, we broke our tracks along the side of the Big Loop trail. We did not see any wildlife on this adventure but did see plenty of tracks. And, once Larry informed me of the sign indicating that an active mountain lion was in that area, my thoughts seemed to veer that direction frequently.
We trekked as far as we wanted to go down the Big Loop trail before reversing course up to the hut and then back down the snowshoe trail. We had another great time of winter exploration in Northern Idaho. Every day, I am so grateful for the opportunity to have moved here. Total miles: 5.29 miles.
