Coeur d'Alene - St. Maries - Potlatch. US 95 Alt. Lake Coeur d'Alene Route.
Coeur d'Alene to Potlatch 110m.
Thi is perhaps the loveliest drive for its lenght in Idaho. Accomodations are less than average.
US 95 Alt. follows the route of US 10 for eleven miles (see Tour 10) E of Coeur d'Alene before turning south along the eastern shore of LAKE COEUR D'ALENE. After crossing the bridge the highway follows the shore line and passes BEAUTY, SQUAW, TURNER and CARLIN BAYS, the first of which is usuallycalmly blue when the main body of the lake is rolling high waves. From Beauty,Turner and Carlin, paths lead (L) to the summit of Mount Coeur d'Alene, following streams or passing through heavy evergreen growth. This summit (5,200 alt.) is the highest point in the range and offers a fine view of the surrounding country. Branching from these trails are other trail leading to Elk, Killarney and red Horse Mountains.
For a considerable distance the highway follows close to this body of water, which the National Geographic is declared by legend to have called the fifth loveliest in the world. Entirely surrounded by low wooded hills, it lies for mile upon mile, serenely blue with pale acreages of light falling upon it in broad fields or trembling upon it in silver paths. The view afforded will depend on the position of the sun for this lake is not the same at morning, noon, and evening, nor when looking away from the sun or against it. If the wind is very gentle, the surface wears a pattern like that of fern leaves, and if the wind is a little stronger, then it is like a dappled blue pavement of glass. If the wind is stronger still, the dark blue miraculously opens into white crests as if flowering, and the iny valleys are ridged in bloom. There are areas where upon the blue a deeper blue seems in shadow to have been poured or in sunlight to lie like a veil of silk; or it may seem as if the depth is gloden yellow above a buried sun, with lilac mists trembling on the surface; or it may look as if liquid light has been spilled on the water. In afternoon the are reeflike paths that look like solid gray ice, with the water on either side like dimpled prairies of cobalt blue. In early morning sun, golden sheens seem not quite to touch the surface but to lie close against it like a mist of butterfly wings. At sunset, especially under a cloudy sky, the wooded hills are purple or black fog and shadowed water is like condensed darkness; but the water touched as the flame of the sunset dies looks like a meadow of soft white bloom. There may be lovelier lakes in the world. Some who have seen Coeur d'Alene under varying light in all its moods from utter deep blue serenity to whitecapped perturbation would like to know where they are.
Continuing southward, US 95 Alt. floows the shore of the lake or cuts back over forested hills. It finally enters a canyon, and for two miles the lake eclipsed, but the mountainsides here in summertime are a continuous garden of wild flowers, with the syringa drenching the air in June. Almost immediately south of the canyon, the highway reaches the point where the Coeur d'Alene River into the lake.
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