We spent yesterday in Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho. Just about every storefront in town has a sign supporting the university which has five times the number of employees compared to any other employer in the city. We stayed at the friendly and convenient Monarch Motel just one block away from the downtown.
Today we were back on the motorcycle riding 300 miles on a longer and more scenic route to Missoula, MT. We rarely take the fastest, most direct route and especially not when interstate highways are required.
We rode north on US 95 out of Moscow through the Palouse, a large region in Washington and Idaho covered with steep rolling hills planted primarily with wheat.
We wound through several small towns, often with only 200 or fewer residents, until we rode around the outskirts of Coeur d'Alene where the 2-lane highway became a busy 4-lane peppered with stoplights. After a few miles we left the city behind and enjoyed less traffic on a 2-lane highway that wound through a valley in the Selkirk Mountains.
In Sandpoint, ID we crossed the western part of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho's largest (43 miles long with 111 miles of shoreline) and deepest (1158' - 5th deepest lake in the United States).
After crossing the lake we turned east on Idaho 200 which hugs the eastern edge of the Pend Oreille lakeshore for several miles, then follows the Clark Fork River into Montana.
Now called Montana Highway 200, the 2-lane road winds through forests with views of the Coeur d'Alene Mountains to the southwest.
We stopped for lunch at the Lakeside Motel and Resort in Trout Creek, not expecting the lovely patio at the back of the motel with shade trees and a lush green lawn as we looked out over the Clark Fork River.
We didn't ride over any mountain passes or encounter hairpin turns and twisties, and instead traveled through a stunning part of northeastern Idaho and western Montana.
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