Mountain Lakes of Idaho
 

I love mountain lakes for relaxing, contemplating, and of course taking pictures. Idaho is a huge state land wise and it is a state that you cannot just travel in a Summer and call it good because each area of the state has so much natural beauty to find and a lot of natural lakes to seek out, hence the topic of this thread. The photos I have taken of the lakes in this thread are of the more well know, easy to get to lakes around the state, and this thread is just an extremely small assortment of the lakes in Idaho. Some of the photos were taken this Summer and some within the past few years.

To begin here are some of the large lakes in North Idaho.


Lake Coeur d'Alene
Formed by glaciers, 25 miles long, 3 miles wide and one of the world's five most beautiful alpine lakes according to National Geographic but nobody in Idaho really wants this talked about. My pics are of just a small area of this lake.



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Lake Pend Oreille
Formed by glaciers, 65 miles long, 1200 feet deep and one of the largest fresh water lakes in the nation and the fifth deepest lake in the nation. 12 foot long Giant Sturgeon have been spotted in this lake. I am not into fishing but this lake is known as one of the most perfect trophy fishing lakes in the good old USA. Again, my pics are of just a small area of this lake.




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Priest Lake
19 miles long, 5 miles wide, nearly 400 feet deep, and formed in the last Ice Age. The northern most point of this lake is 15 miles from the Idaho/USA border with British Columbia. This lake was a favorite with Jesuit Priests who were busy converting the Northern Idaho Indians to the Catholic Church, thus the name, Priest Lake. The furthest inland temperate rain forests in North America are near this lake, similar to the wet forests of the Washington state coastal ranges. This area is also mushroom heaven.


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and watch out for the grizzly's



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Central Idaho, in the Sawtooth Mountains just north of Sun Valley in an area often called the Heart of Idaho.




Stanley Lake
A smaller, shallow, glacial lake which drains into the Salmon River.





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Redfish Lake
Glacial lake, 5 miles long, nearly 400 feet deep and so high in elevation that the surface freezes over 3 feet thick with ice in the winter time. The red Sockeye Salmon give this lake its name. They spawn here and swim to the Pacific and come back home to die in this sacred lake, a 900 mile round trip.


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Little Redfish Lake
A smaller glacial lake near the larger Redfish Lake.

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and a creek between the two Redfish Lakes.


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Alturas Lake
Of course glacial. Beware of wolves.:D


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Pettit Lake
the same, glacial and wolves and salmon.





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And the final lake in this set, Payette Lake or Lake Payette, a lake adjacent to the Boise playground resort town of McCall. The mountains and wilderness in the area outside of McCall stretching through West Central, North Central and Central Idaho is the largest contiguous forested wilderness area in the Lower 48. It is so vast that most areas are unknown and unseen unless you are flying over it in a plane. This area also includes the largest roadless forests left in the Lower 48.

Payette Lake
Glacial, full of Salmon and Trout, over 300 feet deep.


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Good stuff!

Heavenly set!! The state of Idaho has some of the most amazing natural beauty and you show it off well.

Great photos! We visited Petit and Redfish Lakes this summer and spend the night at Redfish Lodge before going whitewater rafting on the Salmon River.

What a show! Would love to be one of those Kayakers!!

All I can say is WOOOOOOW!!! :tup:

Now that's what I'm talkin' about. Awesome set.

Breathtaking!

Thanks everyone. 202_Cyclist, I wish I could have floated the Salmon this year. I have been on the stretch North of Stanley past Sunbeam and the Yankee Fork but have never been down the Middle Fork.

That's what I was thinking.

Awesome set as usual Sawtooth

I dida five day rafting trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon last June - best trip ever. The Sawtooth are stunning,

Very nice. I would love to come vacation there someday.

I'm so jealous. I obviously live in Idaho and have not been lucky enough to float the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

I've done the Snake from below Hell's Canyon Dam to Lewiston and the Lochsa as well. They're all great, but the Middle Fork is still my favorite. Between the lakes, rivers and ski hills, I'm hooked on Idaho.

Another great river system to float is the Payette River in the Boise Mountains just north of Boise. The canyon run is wicked and you have to portage to avoid a waterfall.

Splendid lakes and gorgeous photos!

I love the pics! That is a very cool area!

Idaho has some beautiful lakes

I had no idea idaho had such large lakes.

i'm going there this summer!