Summers in the Silver Valley

Summers in the Silver Valley are an opportunity for outdoor adventures unique to Shoshone County. While the bike trails offer scenic views through the mountain ranges, tourists visiting the area can also find excitement flying through the air or exploring the caves below. Today, we continue our series on the many summer attractions in the Valley.

Silver Streak Zipline Tours

New to the Silver Valley this year, Silver Streak Zipline Tour gives patrons a chance to experience the mountains of North Idaho by soaring through the air high above the city of Wallace.

The zipline course, which is the only of its kind on Interstate 90 from Seattle to Boston, opened to the public Friday, and co-owner Bonnie Deroos said the first weekend went well and the first year of operation should be very successful.

“The [opening] weekend was really good, we had a nice turnout,” Deroos said. “We've had tremendous response from the website and Facebook. We've had a lot of people calling about it.”

Silver Streak is expecting things to really pick up next week with Gyro Days, which begins June 13, in Wallace bringing tourists to the city. Deroos said the response to the course is because of the great course and workers.

“We have fantastic guides here, and it's a fantastic course,” Deroos said. “It's just a great time here.”

Crystal Gold Mine Underground Tours

Tourists and area residents alike can get a good understanding of the vmining history that put Shoshone County on the map by taking a tour of one of the mines.

Crystal Gold Mine offers tours of the mines and a chance to pan for gold like the early settlers in Silver Valley. Ray Cropp is the owner of Crystal Gold Mine, and he said that so far, business has been good the past few weeks and expects things to pick up in the summer tourist season.

“We're doing a lot of educational tours lately for the schools, and we have had tourist coming to tour the mine too,” Cropp said. “Everyone has been having a lot of fun. The gold mine is really beautiful.”

New to the mine touring business this year is an R.V. park Cropp said this was a great new improvement with 21 sites with full R.V. hookups. Cropp said he hopes the R.V. park will be a great addition to bring families to tour the mine.

“We're really focused on providing a fun family experience here,” Cropp said.

Enaville Resort, a.k.a. The Snakepit

Hidden off Interstate 90 on the Coeur d'Alene River Road is one of the Silver Valley's oldest and most well known restaurant and bar: the Enaville Resort, also known as the Snakepit.

At 100 years old, the Snakepit offers tourists and locals a northwoods-style restaurant with great food and a good time. Snakepit owner Joe Peak said the restaurant starts to see a big increase in customers around this time each year, and the summer is busiest time for the rustic eatery.

“About this time, we go from zero to 60 in about a week,” Peak said. “From May to September, we get a lot more people and the business is predominately tourist.”

Peak said the Snakepit's already starting to see an increase in patrons and the restaurant is geared up for the summer tourists.

Silver Mountain

Kellogg's nationally-renown ski resort has no trouble keeping the tourists busy in the winter with their slopes, but Marketing Director John Williams said the resort is always trying to raise awareness of the countless activities available for summer tourists.

“Summers at Silver Mountain are ideal for visitors to come and have a great time,” Williams said. “We have a great winter presence, but an ongoing focus for us is to get people to realize we have just as much in the summer as we do in the winter, if not more.”

Silver Mountain summer tourism season really picks up around late-June and continues until September. William said during the summer months, mountain bikers can find challenges on the slopes ranging from beginners courses to some for experts. Moreover, the gondola will begin operating for the summer on June 16, and there will be plenty opportunities to hit the links as well.

“We have the Jackass Golf Tournament in June,” Williams said. “Then in July, we've got the Silver Valley Cup, which is 27 holes at three different golf courses in the Valley — nine holes at Galena, nine at Pinehurst and nine at Shoshone.”

On top of all of that, Silver Valley hosts a number of different events, such as the Bark and Brew Festival, the Mountaintop Concert and the Harvest Festival.

Route of the Hiawatha

At Lookout Pass, the summer brings the opening of one of the nation's best bike courses. The Route of the Hiawatha brings tourists from all over the country to ride the scenic trail.

Phil Edholm of Lookout Pass said the summer season brings about one-third of Lookout's total visitors, and like Silver Mountain, the tourists start showing up more around late-June and early July through September. However, reservations for the course start being made in February.

Edholm said the Hiawatha has seen an annual increase of about 10 percent for the last five years and doesn't see this year bucking that trend.

“We anticipate that as long as Mother Nature allows us, we're going to see another good summer,” Edholm said.

1313

The summer tourists aren't only here for biking and golf, Silver Valley restaurants such as the 1313 in downtown Wallace also get a heavy tourism boost in the warmer months of summer.

“We are actually a lot busier in the summer than we are in the winter,” 1313 owner Dean Cooper said.

Much of the increase in business at the 1313 in the summer is due to the many festivals the city of Wallace has to offer and the national attention of Wallace.

“The national presence of Wallace really helps the tourism industry here, and our business,” Cooper said. “National attention gets the people off the interstate and into our towns to boost our businesses.”

By BOBBY ATKINSON

Staff writer