Snowshoeing: Palouse Divide

ByMatt

Palouse Divide

I must have forgotten to post about this trip. This was last week, January 5, 2013. This was Idaho Parks and Recreation’s free day in which no parking pass was required to use the Park n’ Ski areas or any of the state parks. There are two Park n’ Ski areas near Moscow: Elk River and Palouse Divide. The Park n’ Ski areas are generally groomed nordic ski trails, but some of them are good for snowshoeing as well. Since the hike to Elk River falls would have been more than 2 miles one-way, I suggested we head up to Palouse Divide where a short trail would take us to a view over the St. Maries River valley. It would only be a mile to the view with the option to continue snowshoeing if we felt the trip was too short.

When we got to the snow park, I noticed that the first part of our trail was cleared for logging traffic. About .1 miles in, we found what looked like a nice trail that left the road and headed up, but that trail soon disappeared and after consulting the GPS, I decided that our real trail was up the road a bit. Of course, when we got there, we found that the entire trail to the Emida View was in fact plowed for the logging trucks. So, we had a nice walk along the road, but the snowshoes were unnecessary.

The views along this road are quite nice, and we had some special weather effects to make the experience a bit more magical. The first thing we notice are some snow-capped peaks in the distance, part of the St. Joe mountains behind St. Maries.  A little further down the road, the view opened up to the east exposing the rounded hills of the Palouse Divide. In the distance, we could make out the high peaks of the Freezeout Saddle area, but more immediately, Bald Mountain rose up as the highest point in the range. But here’s the cool part: In the valley, the mist had concentrated into a nice cloud below us. It’s a condition I have been waiting forever to photograph.

We ended up hiking well beyond the view, thinking that there would be an even clearer view up ahead, but eventually, we stopped for lunch and turned back. Since we didn’t get to use our snowshoes, I led a few people on a “short cut” off trail back to the parking area. While we had fun tromping through the 2-feet of powder, it turned out to be harder than we expected. Shadow figured it out with no problem. Greta kept getting stuck in some deep spots, though she eventually made it. Once we intercepted the old logging road, the rest of the hike was a breeze.

Palouse Divide seems like a nice place to explore the winter mountains of north-central Idaho, but either we’ll have to explore the other side which is not open to logging trucks, or cross-country ski it. This one seems like a better place to ski.

First view of mountains Emida View

Similar Posts

  • |

    Old Rag

    Spring!, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer. In April, I briefly lost my camera due to a bent pin in the card slot. I sent it to Canon for repair and got the camera back in a week’s time. Unfortunately, during that time, I had scheduled a hike up Old Rag with Jon, my supervisor at the time. So, after a trip to Fed Ex, I stopped at the camera store and bought a couple rolls of film. I’ve finally had the chance to get the old scanner out of the box and get this set of slides scanned and uploaded….

  • Sand Mountain Trail

    I don’t get out hiking or geocaching often these days. With geocaching, it makes sense. I’ve found nearly all of the geocaches in a close distance to home and town, forcing me to travel farther distances just to make a find. But when it comes to hiking, I have less of an excuse. I don’t live in Moscow. I live near Deary, 25 miles east, which puts me 25 miles closer to the mountains. It puts me at the edge of the mountains, the foothills if you prefer. There are hiking trails all around. The closest is spud hill, from…

  • |

    Small hikes near Moscow

    The end of the semester is a busy time, and that often means foregoing larger adventures for some smaller ones closer to home. In the last week, I’ve been trying to keep active and take advantage of the local trails. One of these trails is the Headwaters trail on the western end of Moscow Mountain. In my five years here, I’ve never hiked this trail despite its close proximity and popularity among hikers, runners, and mountain bikers. Yet when all of my friends say they were on Moscow Mountain, they almost always mean the Headwaters trail. Headwaters is a 5…

  • Hiking Deary

    View from Potato Hill, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer. I’ve now been in Idaho for almost three weeks and I’m starting to get settled into my new home. Later I will post about the property and the abundant wildlife that make our place so special. But today, I write about a local hiking opportunity just over a mile down the road in the town of Deary. I have a theory that all cities and towns have an overlook, a spot from which you can stand and look down upon the population center. Sometimes these overlooks are only a few feet…

  • Backpacking: Seven Devils’ Lower Cannon Lake

    My father-in-law and his wife have been visiting us since last Wednesday. Before coming out, he had asked if we could go on a little male bonding trip into the backcountry for a night. So, I set about looking for a short and easy hike to a spectacular place. I figured he had probably never spent the night under the rocky peaks next to a glacial tarn, and the high lakes are also one of my favorite places to spend a night, but most of the lakes around here are either fairly strenuous hikes, long hikes, or take nearly all…

  • |

    Porcupine Mountains, Memorial Day Weekend

    Lake of the Clouds Originally uploaded by Up Nort. This Memorial Day weekend was exactly what I needed. It was a weekend away from civilization getting some good physical exercise and getting in touch with the real world. The Porcupine Mountains are simply amazing. Its Michigan’s largest state park and on a scale of 1-10, I give this park an 11. Parts of the park are covered in old-growth timber including some impressive hemlock stands. Other parts were once mined for iron and are covered in a very healthy secondary growth. Several spots are muddy and wet with marsh marigold…