A Trip to Northern Idaho – Part 3

Welcome to part 3!

After spending time at Fernan lake, we headed to pick up Janice. We then headed to Post Falls ID, which is between Coeur d’Alene and Spokane. I had mentioned I would like to find some waterfalls somewhere so obviously a place named Post “Falls” would seem like a likely place to find some.

Well, we got there and what we found wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but very cool and exciting nonetheless. Originally designed to power a lumber mill, the dam has been turned into a hydro-electric facility that provides power for miles around.

Avista Dam on the Spokane River in Post Falls ID

Of course, while we were there we took time for a group shot. I’m still getting the hang of this 360 camera but it gives some pretty cool views nonetheless.

Looking the other direction down the river you can see this beautiful arched bridge crossing the Spokane. Constructed in 1929 it serves as the only means of getting to Avista Island (to the left) for maintenance of the dam.

High Bridge

Karen caught my better side while I was shooting the bridge. This is what happens when you take the best vantage point for your photo leaving your wife to make do. 🙂

My better side

In the mean-time, Karen found some ducks at the park. This drake was being chased by a female. He wasn’t having any part of it and jumped in the water to get away. She remained right behind him as he swam away.

Mallard drake

After chasing the ducks, Karen emerged from the woods and I was able to catch her good side. 🙂

The woman of my dreams

After spending some time at the park we needed to let Janice take care of some puppy-sitting business for a friend in town. Lucky for us, this house was near access to the Spokane river and Janice told us to go play and come back for her later. When we entered the area there were signs warning of moose in the area so once more, we got our hopes up. We found birds instead, which we love, but a moose would have been great.

This black capped chickadee looks a lot like the Carolina chickadees in my back yard, but slightly different. So, a lifer for me to add to my list. This one must have been hungry because it had just caught a juicy morsel.

Black capped chickadee with meal

Of course, while I was chasing birds, Karen found more flowers. I believe this is another blue bonnet, even if it is mostly purple. I had no idea they grew this far north.

Another Idaho blue bonnet

After walking around a while, and not seeing any moose, Karen and I found a park bench along the banks of the Spokane River and decided to sit and relax a bit. It was very peaceful here and we enjoyed our time.

And while we were sitting on the park bench relaxing, this strange looking bird caught my eye. I was able to sneak up close enough to capture a few images before it jumped down and scurried into the brush. I recognized it as a quail from the forehead feather, but it wasn’t until later that a friend identified it for me as a California quail. Add another new one to the list!

California quail

And that about does it for this day and for part 3. Come back for part 4 and our hunt for the elusive moose!

Michael
Sharing God’s Creation, One Click at a Time

All words and photos copyright 2019 MHampton Photography
Equipment used: Canon 5DS-R, Canon 1DX II, Canon T6S, and various Canon lenses and Insta360 One X

A Trip to Northern Idaho – Part 2

Our second adventure day was to see another mountain, this time east of Coeur d’Alene named Silver Mountain. Unfortunately, we got there and it was just like Wally World, closed. They weren’t opening the gondola rides up the mountain until the next weekend, after we were to leave. Oh well, time to improvise another adventure.

On our way to Silver Mountain, we passed Old Mission State Park, so we decided to stop and see what it was all about. This was a mission that was set up to minister to the local Native Americans in the area. This is noted as being the oldest building in Idaho, being built between 1850 and 1853 by Roman Catholic missionaries and members of the Coeur d’Alene tribe. The Sacred Heart Mission served the local community for many years and featured the chapel, the priests’ home, and a school. The school burned down in 2011.

Sacred Heart Chapel

Next door to the chapel was the house in which the priests lived. While certainly sparse by today’s standards, 150 years ago, I bet this was living pretty well. Here is a 360 view of inside the clergy house.

Back outside, being from Texas, we found it interesting that there were blue bonnets growing here on the grounds. I guess they were trying hard to make this place feel closer to heaven. 🙂

Blue bonnets in Idaho? Who knew?

After spending the day looking for adventure, we had dinner and parted with our friend Janice for the day. I then decided to hop onto Facebook and see if there were any local birding spots. I got a reply from someone connected with the Coeur d’Alene Audubon Society who recommended we try Fernan Lake. We decide that would be our first stop of the day tomorrow prior to picking up Janice. You see, we love Janice, but she’s just not into birds. 🙂

The next day we do just that. After waking up and eating breakfast, we head out to Frenan Lake to see what it is all about. We were not disappointed. While there is public access at various points around the lake, it is also surrounded by houses and private property. Some of the houses were pretty amazing.

Houses overlooking lake Fernan

We found at the south end of the lake, one of the occupants was an osprey. It was there nearly every day, just waiting for us to catch it and take its photo. Karen got this one.

Osprey on branch

Spend enough time watching an osprey around water and sooner or later it is going to get something to eat. It apparently caught this small fish around the corner because I did not witness the catch, but it did honor us with this fly-by.

Osprey with lunch

There were also several families of Canadian geese in the lake. We saw groups of just a few to one with about 15 little ones in tow. This is one of the families of medium size.

Canadian geese family

And what kind of birding place at a lake would it be without an appearance of a great blue heron! These huge majestic birds make flying look easy. I mean if these huge lanky things can fly, why can’t I?

GBH fly-by

Near the north end of the lake is a patch of water plants with beautiful yellow flowers. It was a very peaceful spot to relax before heading out on another day of adventure in Idaho.

Water flower

And that ends part 2 of our Idaho adventure! Say tuned for part 3!

Michael
Sharing God’s Creation, One Click at a Time

All words and photos copyright 2019 MHampton Photography
Equipment used: Canon 5DS-R, Canon 1DX II, Canon T6S, and various Canon lenses and Insta360 One X

A Trip to Northern Idaho – Part 1

These posts have been a long time coming. Karen and I took this trip back in May and I’m just now getting around to posting this. It has been a crazy summer with me trying to get my portrait business off the ground and at the same time forcing myself to learn new photo management/editing software. After using Adobe LightRoom for years, I finally decided to make the jump to Capture One. After trying several other competitors I found it the best at giving me everything LightRoom had, plus a little more, but without the monthly license fee. I do not mind paying for software, but to have to pay every month… forever? But, that is a story for a different post. As a side note, all photos in these posts have been processed using Capture One Pro software.

The main purpose of this trip was to visit our long-time friend Janice. We have known her for many years. We attended the same churches and were in a small Bible study group together. She moved from the Dallas area to Coeur d’Alene ID shortly after we moved from the Dallas area to Overton. Karen and I had talked about going for a visit for several years and finally decided it was time to just do it.

We knew very little about the area up there before the trip, and truthfully, due to the timing of the trip, coming right on the heels of Karen’s very busy tax season, we didn’t do a lot of research beforehand. All we knew was that our friend was there and it was supposed to be a beautiful part of the country. That was enough for us.

So, we flew into Spokane WA and met up with Janice for lunch. Our first day was spent getting settled and fed. Janice had a few places picked out to show us over the next few days so we could hardly wait.

For our first day of adventure Janice guided us up Schweitzer Mountain, a nice resort area north of where she lives. The first thing we noticed was all the beautiful mountains in the area, and yes, there was snow! (We haven’t seen much of that in our neck of the woods the last few years so yeah, we were a little excited.)

Entering the Schweizer Mountain Resort area

Taking the drive up the mountain we had to pull off on several overlooks to “look over” the beautiful country. It seemed like every turn opened up a new vista for us to enjoy!

Overlook from Schweitzer Mountain

As we continued up the mountain we wondered if we would see any wildlife. After seeing signs warning of bears we were hopeful of seeing some of those beautiful creatures. Not much farther up the road we did see some wildlife–not bears, but deer. Not as exciting as bears, but just as beautiful and we certainly stopped to enjoy them.

Deer along the road on Schweitzer Mountain

Once we made it to the top of the drive (not the mountain) there was the resort area and lots of condominiums, and a family of bears, or at least as close as we would get to bears on this trip. Of course, Karen made me stop so she could take a few photos. I’m glad she did. 🙂

Bear family hanging out at the condo

Once at the top we took the obligatory selfies and other photos and enjoyed the cooler air. It was pretty cold up there, and I did not bring “cold weather” clothing with me. I dressed more for 60 degree weather, it was closer to mid 30s and windy up there so we didn’t tarry very long. (Note, I’m still trying to figure out how to control 360 degree images in WordPress.)

After poking around up top we headed back down the mountain, only to stop at more overlooks. The scenery was truly breathtaking, from the snow-capped mountains, to the lake, to the dynamic clouds.

Coming down Schweitzer Mountain

At one point we were able to see a couple of small towns at the bottom of the mountain, which I believe are Ponderay (on right) and Kootenai (on left), along with Kootenai Bay on Lake Pend Oreille–at least if my Google Earth skills are not failing me.

Towns at the bottom of Schweitzer Mountain

A little lower down and we can enjoy the true majesty of the mountains as they reach into the sky with the boiling clouds. Very much a sight to behold!

Mountains reaching for the sky

That concluded our first adventure day, but there are several more to come!

Stay tuned!

Michael
Sharing God’s Creation, One Click at a Time

All words and photos copyright 2019 MHampton Photography
Equipment used: Canon 5DS-R, Canon 1DX II, Canon T6S, and various Canon lenses and Insta360 One X