I guess you could say we look forward to every trip and we do but travelling with those you love adds something special. This time out we headed south into Idaho to a little lake in the middle of the Nez Pierce Reservation just outside of Lewiston, ID with my Parents.
Neither of us had ever been there so it was a little bit like throwing a dart at a map and I had no idea what to expect. The photos on the Idaho State website made it look inviting and it was a very reasonable 3 hours away. I’m glad we went.
The drive was amazing. It was some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen in person. Traveling south from Coeur D’Alene on HWY 95 you eventually get to this magical area called the Palouse that stretches from Southwest Washington into north central Idaho and also into north eastern Oregon. The area takes up thousands of square miles and seemingly stretches on forever with some of the most beautiful rolling hills covered in fields of wheat and legumes. While the mission was getting to our destination and I regret I did not take any pictures this time through the area, I do plan on making it a destination in the near future. There are a number of amazing little towns on the way through to Lewiston to stop at and crawl through in the future!
Finally arriving at the south end of the Palouse and at the top of this crazy hill, we decided to do the touristy thing and stop at a pull out overlooking the city of Lewiston, ID.
The distance down to the city doesn’t look like much from these photos but 6 miles at 7% grade is quite a bit. We slowed it down to about 45 and let the truck work the gearing and brakes while I monitored the wheel and gauges and we did just fine. Now I just had to worry about going up on the way back!
From here the camp ground was about 40 minutes south east from Lewiston. We were almost there! Rolling off of HWY95 and into the town of Winchester was like entering an alternate reality for this city boy. you would miss it if you didn’t slow down. This is a no stoplight town with more churches than stop signs! Winchester has a tiny little general store with two gas pumps and that’s about it. If you need to do anything major count on a 40 minute to an hour drive for shopping so pack it all in if you can.
We were finally there. Great minds think alike and I think Max was as ready for a drink as I was! We only poured one folks, he’s really a bourbon guy.
Idaho does a great job maintaining their camp grounds and the rangers had a good presence. The camp ground was pretty full.
Most of the sites are pretty tight and there is very little to no privacy. We got lucky though as the parental units managed to get the best site in the place where I think I quite possibly got the worst! Needless to say, we spent all our time at their spot.
Regardless, we had a blast hanging out! We stayed for three nights, most of the grounds cleared out the next afternoon and we had a little privacy from then on. We did not, however, have any Windex.
I attempted to get a fire going the first night and could not get it built up enough with the soaking wet wood the rangers were happy to sell us and gave up. The next night Dad built this…
The lake was beautiful but very muddy and some passersby warned us not to swim in it. Likely its just to stagnant to be very clean and there is quite a bit of water fowl everywhere.
At one point we headed into Lewiston to explore the town and have dinner. We found this amazing little shop called River Chicks Antiques & Knicks right on the Snake River. They had an eclectic mix of things from antiques and fun knickknacks to other people’s junk. One spot had a wall of hand drawn classic monster movie characters that was super fun.
On the wall on the way out this caught my eye and funny bone!
All in all, it was a good time. I’m not sure we would go back again though. The lake is not very usable, the sites are tight and you have to leave the campground to get to the dump station. Idaho is currently in the process of a large price hike for out of state folks and for what they want to charge I think it’s reasonable to want sewer at my site which this camp ground does not provide.
There are some decent tent sites right down on the lake so if you want to rough it a little more than us I highly recomend you check it out.
Winchester Lake State Park, Winchester, ID
208 924 7563
1786 Forrest Rd, Winchester, ID 83555
J & T's Adventures 