We stayed at the Lodge at Sandpoint for three nights - a very nice place to be in northern Idaho. We had a one bedroom apartment on the fourth floor of the lodge and the view was very nice. The lodge is on the south shore of Lake Pend Oreille. The bridge there to the right is for Hwy 95 and it goes to Sand Point.
We brought the rain with us (again) and spent the first couple of days with showers or drizzle. Everyone up there was pretty happy about the rain, especially given the severe fire season they had been having.
This is a view of the balcony area of our rental. It was really peaceful here. We spent a bit of time just sitting out there and taking in the morning sights or evening scenery.
We did our first birding trip up north to Kootenai Wildlife reserve. There's a short path near the ranger station and this was one of the first signs of birds - drill holes from a sapsucker.
Not birds, but I did enjoy seeing the water skippers. I've not seen many of these in Ohio, but I do remember seeing them all the time in the Pacific Northwest as I was growing up here.
The reserve was on a low water regime during our visit - not as good for birding, but we did see a lot of variety of species. It would have been much better if the water had been up and flooding the flats.
We walked a trail to a waterfall on the edge of the reserve. It was really a nice place. I got a kick out of all the warning signs about how treacherous the trail was supposed to be. After all the interesting places I've hiked in South Africa, this trail was pretty mild by comparison.
We were hoping to see an American Dipper along this stream, but we didn't even see any sign of it (i.e., no bird guano on the rocks).
Steve spent a lot of time looking, though.
I really like the sound of water tumbling over big rocks.
I'm not sure what this plant is, but it was all over the rock wall across the ravine from us.
The rock was covered in plants - very tranquil to see.
This seems like perfect habitat for a dipper, but not a one in sight. Oh well.
I thought I had more pictures from the reserve, but I guess I was too busy making use of my new spotting scope to bother with the camera. We saw a lot of different species of ducks, some raptors, and lots of geese (300 at one spot), but not much else up at the reserve.
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