Enjoy the scenic Lake Pend Oreille . . .    by car!!

Lake Pend Oreille is not merely beautiful for those who are in boats on the water. With Sandpoint as the point of departure, there are many driving tours which offer wonderful scenery and the opportunity to stop for walks along the shoreline or, from up in the mountains, expansive lake vistas.

Highway Tour with Big Views
       An easy half-hour drive out of Sandpoint is simply east on Highway 200 toward Clark Fork, which offers excellent views down both the west arm of the lake and the south arm `bout as far as the eye can see. This route was recently designated a scenic byway in both Idaho and Montana, and there several pull-outs on the way to Hope where you can take in the view. A good destination would be to the Hope Peninsula and Samowen Park (1-800-280-CAMP) or farther on to the Cabinet Gorge Hatchery, where tours are available during business hours.

Expansive Vistas from Schweitzer Mountain
       Another easy half-hour jaunt from Sandpoint, offering a bird's-eye view, is up to Schweitzer Mountain Resort (263-9555), an easy 11 miles from city center. Drive north two miles on Highway 95 and turn left on the Schweitzer Cutoff Road. Follow the signs up the mountain on the recently rebuilt, paved road. At the village you can buy a ticket to ride the Great Escape Chair lift to the top of Schweitzer Peak, where you'll see sweeping mountain vistas and the outline of the northern end of the lake. You may even find some huckleberries; ask for directions to the best patches.

The Full-Day Grand Circumnavigation
       If you're in the mood for a full day of driving around Lake Pend Oreille's 111 miles of shoreline, here's the Grand Loop Tour, with Sandpoint as the point of departure and final destination. To undertake the loop driving tour, which ventures onto gravel Forest Service roads from Clark Fork to Bayview) it's a good idea to have a copy of the U.S. Forest Service map for the Kaniksu National Forest, available for $4 from the Sandpoint Ranger District at 1500 Highway 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864, phone 208-263-5111. (The ranger district will mail maps if you send in payment.)
       Start your driving tour in Sandpoint, where the easiest and best lake access is a block from downtown at City Beach -- surely one of the finest city parks anywhere. It's possible to explore to the north of the City Beach itself along an unmaintained shoreline jeep trail that goest past the former site of what was once the largest sawmill in the world, Humbird Mill, in the early 1900s. Only scattered pilings attest to its history now.
       Continuing east past Ponderay and Kootenai, there is a public boat launch on the east side of Sunnyside Peninsula that is a good place to wet a line or launch a boat to explore around the Pack River delta.
       Heading east and now also bearing south, next stop is the hillside community of Hope, where there is another boat launch and swimming off the docks below the Highway 200 overpass. A bit farther on at the Hope Peninsula is Samowen Park, a fine Forest Service camping and picnic site with cobblestone beach, boat launch and the usual splendid views.
       Now it is on to the Clark Fork River delta, rich in wildlife and best accessed at the Johnson Creek Boat Launch a few miles west now of the town of Clark Fork, where you'll cross the river to begin travelling west. Johnson Creek is a great place to launch a boat for an exploration of the channels and sloughs that make up the delta. Here also you can cruise the shores below the magnificent Monarch Mountains, which plunge abruptly into the deepest waters of the lake with scattered vest-pocket beaches reachable only by water.
       To drive this southeast shore of Lake Pend Oreille, motorists must take to the High Drive, signed as Forest Road 278. Don't undertake this 30-plus mile drive on often rough gravel roads without a forest map (available at the Sandpoint Ranger District 263-5111). You'll be high above the lake, which can be sighted at only a few points, most specifically including the Johnson Viewpoint, high above the lake six miles from the Clark Fork bridge. You can each the lake at two public access points, the Forest Service campgound at Whiskey Rock Bay and the small resort village of Lakeview.
       You'll depart the High Drive at the southern tip of the lake, where a pair of the finest lake accoutrements lie: the lake community of Bayview, and sprawling Farragut State Park (683-2425) next door. Bayview has restaurants, resorts and other amenities with in-your-face lake and mountain beauty. Farragut is largest and most popular park on the lake, with excellent facilities for camping, hiking, biking, swimming and fishing.
       Heading north up the lake's western shore there are only a few public access points reached by land. One is Maiden Rock, reached by a new 1.5-mile trail at the end of Butler Creek Road, about five miles from Highway 95. There is a bit of public beach at Talache Landing, and futher north is Garfield Bay, with public areas, a large marina (263-9595), camping and restaurant. Just four miles north at the crow flies is also Bottle Bay with similar facilities.
       About five miles across the lake is Sandpoint. Coming around Contest Point, you arrive at the Long Bridge which actually crosses the Pend Oreille River, and back to Sandpoint. Phew, what a shoreline!