At this intersection of four major subranges of the Rockies—the Selkirks to the North, the Cabinets to the East and the Coeur d’Alenes and Bitterroots to the South—Lake Pend Oreille sits at the base of the broad, fertile farmland of the Kootenai River Valley.
The fjord-like lakes and fog-enshrouded peaks of Northern Idaho have been shaped by ancient geological forces: some of the continent’s oldest rock; deep, glacier-gouged lakes; vast veins of ore; and, hidden geothermal hot springs. It is a landscape that remains much as it did when the first Europeans explored it 200 years ago, where grizzlies and mountain goats roam the high, flower-filled mountain meadows and deer and elk graze the pine-dotted forests of the foothills.
