Area Activities ~ Hiking Coeur d' Alene and North Idaho Trails

• Endless hiking opportunities exist in the Coeur d'Alene area and surrounding Kootenai and Shoshone Counties. We are blessed to have some great trail heads just down the road from Mountain Light Retreat.

  Mineral Ridge Trail

  One of our favorite short hikes, 10 minutes from our driveway is the Mineral Ridge Trail. The Mineral Ridge trail is approximately 3 miles and is a full circle route overlooking Lake Coeur d'Alene and the surrounding wilderness. This serene forested trail system offers great photo ops and historical monuments of the rich mining history of the area. The Mineral Ridge trail we would classify as an intermediate level hike. Here's a great guide to the Mineral Ridge Trail head.

  Blue Creek Bay Trails

  This is a great network of old logging trails maintained by the Bureau of Land Management, just down the road from Mountain Light Retreat! Head back to the frontage road off the freeway and instead of merging towards the interstate, keep straight (west) on the frontage road heading up an intermediate grade paralleling the highway. Travel for 1/2 mile. Shortly after the road turns from pavement to gravel, you will see a gate on the right side of the road. This is trail head #1 (easy to intermediate hiking ability). Continue 1/4 mile down the road and there is a developed parking area with trail head #2 (intermediate hiking ability) heading uphill. Across the road from the parking trail, there is an easy trail with minimal grade that runs for 3/4 mile terminating at the Blue Creek Bay public recreation area and boat landing.

  Tubbs Hill Trail

  Tubbs Hill is located adjacent to downtown Coeur d'Alene along the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene. This is a great hike for beautiful lake vistas and is a great hike for the whole family. The trail is a great wildflower hot spot in the spring. There are many coves, small beaches and other outcroppings that provide great lake shore access. We highly recommend checking out this trail for anyone planning on spending any time in downtown. Here's a great guide to Tubb's Hill hiking in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

  Hiking at Mountain Light Retreat

  We have our very own 1/2 mile nature trail circling our 40 acre forested mountain property. We are in the process of building various rest stations, scenic view points, picnic areas and nature education points along our private trail system. The trail is gently rolling to marginally steep and we would classify the loop as an intermediate trail for regular hikers. The loop trail system is graded and well-market.. A good hiking staff is suggested for your safety.

  Panhandle National Forest Trails

  The Panhandle National Forest offers approximately 3 million acres of nearly unbroken wilderness areas just minutes from our property. There are hundreds of miles of old logging roads than you can hike to various overlooks, waterfalls, ridge lines, etc. for days with appropriate navigational gear and backpacking/camping equipment. The best bet for day hikers is to stick to one of the established trail heads or circle routes maintained by the U.S. Forest Service (too many to list here). To find a list of popular trail heads in the forest with descriptions and directions, check out these links (We're in the Coeur d'Alene River Area): Panhandle Day Hiking Trails or Panhandle Multi-Day Backpacking Routes.

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