Coeur d'Alene

Coeur d'Alene Lake is 25 miles long and up to 220 feet deep, carved by Pleistocene glaciers and fed by mountain snowmelt that keeps its water remarkably clear visibility to 40+ feet on calm days. The city at the lake's northern end has reinvented itself since the 1970s as a resort destination centered on the Coeur d'Alene Resort a 338-room hotel with the world's only floating golf green (accessible by boat) on the 14th hole of its lakefront course. The Centennial Trail runs 24 miles along the Spokane River connecting Coeur d'Alene to Spokane; on the Idaho side it follows the lake's north shore through city parks. Silver Mountain Ski Resort, an hour east via I-90 at Kellogg, is Idaho's second-largest ski area with 67 runs on two interconnected mountains accessible by the world's longest gondola (3.1 miles). The Historic Silver Valley, the former Bunker Hill Mining complex at Wallace, preserves the history of the world's richest silver district the Wallace area is a designated National Historic Landmark district for its intact 1890s downtown commercial architecture. The Spokane River Centennial Trail between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane is ideal for cycling.