Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Fall color loop in Idaho

I'm recalling that I promised a trip report when we returned from Idaho.

We live in Oregon and decided to spend our first night in Spokane, Washington. Although we drove through some flat, arid countryside to get there the scenery began to perk up about a half hour south of Spokane. The terrain became a little hillier with more evergreens.

Because we were only staying that one night we chose the historic Davenport Hotel in downtown. What a beautiful restoration of a lovely old hotel! We wanted to experience as much as possible so actually ate 3 different appetite dinners in 3 locations.

The following morning we took a walk down to see the rapids and river in the riverfront park. There were things about the setting which reminded me a bit of Glasgow, Scotland--the river park in town, and the many old brick buildings--several with towers and turrets. To top it off, we had a mall to walk through on the way back. Any chance to go through Nordstroms, and I'll take it!

That day we drove on (less than an hour) to the resort at Lake Coeur D'Alene. The trees were turning color and the sun was out. This was true of our whole weeklong trip. The weather was perfect. At the resort we had a 'stay 3 nights, pay for 2 package. That gave us time to drive around part of the lake, as well as have lunch further north at Sandpoint on Lake Pend Oreille. We also varied our restaurant experiences and wandered town a bit. With such an incredible lake view I didn't mind just reading in my room.

Next up was to follow the highway going to Missoula, Montana. I had always heard of Wallace, Kellogg and Mullen but had never seen them. It was an interesting mountainous drive through a historic part of the state.

At Missoula we switched highways and headed south along one of the forks of the Salmon River, thus seeing the Bitteroot Mountains. I guess they'd had a bit of snow a month earlier, but the trees along the river were still colorful.

We spent a night at the 100 Acre Wood Lodge. The owner had split and cut the logs himself in 1978. It was a quiet, peaceful place on a little pond, with the occasional deer walking past, and a couple of fat cats patrolling. Dinner was at a pizza place a couple miles up the road.

The following day was the most scenic. We were still following the Salmon River, but possibly another fork. (we didn't have a map with us). The steelhead fishermen and elk hunters were out in numbers. We drove on through Salmon and Stanley, thus getting to enjoy the incredible rugged beauty of the Sawtooth Mts.

We spent that night in Ketchum after having a drink at the Sun Valley Lodge which neither of us had seen since the 1960's. After a recent remodel and updating it had really changed. We had dinner in downtown Ketchum and sadly I don't remember the name of the restaurant. However breakfast was at the Kneadery--excellent.

The following day was a drier, less scenic trip on to Boise and a stay which was walking distance from downtown. Boy are they busy tearing that up--more cranes and shovels than I'd last seen in Seattle! We had a good dinner at Fork.

Boise has also changed a lot. When I was a little kid it was the place to go for eyeglasses, teeth braces, etc, but not gourmet food or music or art.