Things to Do Within 100 Miles of Moscow, Idaho (UI's home town)
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About Idaho
"UI Top Adventure School"

       Northern Idaho's mountains, forests, rivers, and lakes are second to none for those who enjoy the outdoors. Outside magazine ranks UI among the nation's top adventure schools--with the most opportunities for adventure seekers. In its September 2003 issue, Outside lists the most "adrenaline-friendly" colleges and universities in the nation that "turn out smart grads with top-notch academic credentials, a healthy environmental ethos, and an A-plus sense of adventure. UI ranked 29th in the list. The magazine points to the 55-foot climbing wall located in the Student Recreation Center, the eight-mile bike path along Paradise Creek, recreation opportunities on Moscow Mountain, and the paddling adventures available on the Snake and Salmon rivers. The magazine also praises the UI Outdoor Program for its outstanding opportunities for students, noting its mountaineering expeditions to Kokanee Glacier and Mount Rainier.
       UI is close to world-class opportunities for skiing, rafting, biking, hiking, camping, mountaineering, and rock climbing. Come and see for yourself!

The Palouse
      The University of Idaho is located in a region of northern Idaho and eastern Washington that is called "the Palouse." This is an agricultural area of rolling wheat fields adjacent to northern Idaho's extensive, mountainous, conifer forests. Situated next to the Idaho-Washington border, the University of Idaho is close to Washington State University, only 8 miles away and easily accessible by bus, car, or bike trail. The two universities together provide a huge array of opportunities and resources--academic, cultural, and recreational.

More about Moscow, UI's home town

                             The Palouse

THINGS TO DO WITHIN 100 MILES OF MOSCOW

Interesting natural and cultural features and activities that are completely within or have portions or segments within a 100 mile circle of Moscow ID, a 31,416 square mile area that extends from Newport WA to near Thompson Falls, MT (102 mi.) to Elk City, ID (98mi.) to Enterprise, OR (97mi.) to near Pasco, WA (106 mi.) and Othello, WA (102 mi.), having a population of about 888,000 people or 28 per square mile. Those beyond the 100 miles are noted with their mileage.

Activities/Events/Sightseeing: Numerous festivals, mine tours, cruises on the St. Joe and Columbia/Snake Rivers; 3.1 mile gondola ride on the world’s longest single stage gondola at Silver Mountain or on the steepest gondola ride in North America at Mt. Howard, OR (107 mi.); Tribal Casinos at Airway Heights, WA, and Kamiah, Lewiston and Worley, ID; 4^th of July fireworks on Coeur d’Alene Lake and Royal Fireworks Festival and Concert in Spokane; Renaissance Faire, Moscow; National Lentil Festival in Pullman; walk the world’s longest floating boardwalk (3/4 mi.) at the Coeur d’Alene Resort; seaplane rides; greyhound racing; huckleberry and morel mushroom picking; horseback riding; parasailing; Oasis Bordello Museum in Wallace; 8,771' Taft Tunnel Bike Trail; largest laser light show in the world on the Grand Coulee Dam (124 mi.); IMAX Theater with a 5 story screen, Spokane; the world’s largest Radio Flyer Wagon (12' high, 27' long) Spokane; Lilac Bloomsday Run, Spokane (had been the largest timed road race in the world); pro baseball, hockey and soccer teams; panning for gold, and garnet and fossil digging; 6 ghost towns.

Breweries and Wineries: The breweries - 2 in Coeur d’Alene, 1 in Lewiston; the wineries - 40 near Walla Walla, 7 near Spokane, 1 in Moscow.

Cities (over 20K estimated for 2003): Spokane (205,100), Coeur d’Alene (36,700), Lewiston 32,900), Walla Walla (31,100), Opportunity (26,300) now in Spokane Valley (Pop. , Pullman (25,900), Moscow (22,600).

Cultural: 4 Universities, 6 Colleges, 5 Community Colleges; the most wired university in the West (UI); four symphony orchestras, a chorale, a dance ensemble, two major national entertainment centers (Pullman, Spokane); Appaloosa Horse Club, Moscow; Lionel Hampton Jazzfest, Moscow (major week long fest); four Performing Arts Theaters; St. Gertrude’s Benedictine Monastery, Cottonwood; Farragut submarine base on Pend Oreille Lake; Hanford DOE Atomic Energy site (110 mi).; Cataldo Mission, oldest building (1853) in Idaho; the ocean ports of Lewiston (farthest inland at 465 mi. in western US)and Wilma; the world’s first environmental World’s Fair in 1974, Spokane, the biggest city between Seattle and Minneapolis; St. Boniface, oldest Catholic Church in WA; many museums, B&Bs; movies made in area: Breakheart Pass (Lewiston, 1976), Heaven’s Gate (Wallace, 1979), Talent for the Game (Genesee, 1991), Dante’s Peak (Wallace, l996); Lewis and Clark Highway (US 12) is the shortest route from the Midwest to the Pacific and the longest highway within a National Forest in the US; Appaloosa horse first bred in the Kamiah Valley.

Fisheries/Wildlife: Fish include chinook, coho and kokanee salmon, sturgeon, small- and largemouth bass and world class steelhead and trout (5 species) fishing; 5 fish hatcheries - the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery is the largest steelhead producing hatchery in the world; some big catches: 39 lb Kamloops trout, 19 lb Rainbow trout, 30 lb steelhead, 32 lb Dolly Varden, 45-54 lb Chinook salmon, 31 lb Channel Catfish, 38 lb Northern Pike, 8 lb smallmouth bass, 38 lb Tiger Muskellunge, up to 10 foot Sturgeon; wildlife include deer, elk, black bear, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, moose (one took a tour of Moscow June 14 - the police never did catch it), two established wolf packs, turkey, grouse, pheasant, quail, chukar partridge, bald and golden eagles, coyote, cougar, lynx, bobcat, rattlesnakes in lower elevations less than 1500'; 3 National Wildlife Refuges; 11 State Wildlife Management Areas; Wolf Discovery Center, Winchester.

Forestry: 9 National Forests; five species of trees holding the National Tree record; the largest tree in North America east of the Cascade/Sierra Nevada mountains - a Western red cedar, 18' diameter, 177' tall, probably over 3000 years old ; UI has the best operational forest research nursery in the world; 3MM acre1910 forest fire just east of Moscow; last river log drive in US on Clearwater River, 1968.

Geologic: Scablands (caused by a glacial floods about 19,000 years ago, the largest of which gushed 500 cubic miles of water from the breakup of an ice dam 100 miles north of Moscow on Lake Missoula, flowing initially at 9½ cubic miles per hour (10 times more than all the combined rivers in the world - the largest flood in the world, covering 100,000 sq. mi.); Hells Canyon (at 8,000' the deepest canyon in the USA); the Continental Divide; 3 major sand dune areas; Blue, Selkirk, Bitterroot, Cabinet, Clearwater and Coeur d’Alene mountain ranges; a mountain called the Matterhorn (113 miles); Lewiston @ 738' to Tri-cities area WA @ 340' ASL is a banana belt where you can play golf year round; world-class Miocene (14.3 million years old where the climate was equivalent to Florida) trapped carbon fossil beds representing leaf vegetation, so well preserved that DNA can be extracted, near Clarkia, ID; the Columbia Plateau is the largest layer of basalt in the world, one of only two in the US, few others in the world; hot springs; highest elevation 7930', lowest 340'.

Lakes and Reservoirs: The lakes - Pend Oreille (148 sq. mi., 16^th in size in US and 4^th deepest @ 1200'), Coeur d’Alene (50 sq. mi.) and at least 34 other lakes of 100 acres or more. The Reservoirs - Dworshak, held back by the highest straight axis concrete gravity dam in US and largest concrete dam ever built by the Corps of Engineers, 3^rd highest dam in the US; Hells Canyon; Roosevelt Lake; Lower Granite; Little Goose; Lower Monumental; Ice Harbor; and 124 miles to Grand Coulee Dam backing up Lake Roosevelt, largest in capacity in US and 6^th in world.

Parks/Wilderness: 24 state parks, 1^st state park in the NW - Heyburn (1908); Wilderness areas of Selway Bitterroot, Gospel Hump, Eagle Cap and Frank Church River-of-No-Return (largest contiguous wilderness in the continental US), Hell’s Canyon, Wenaha-Tucannon, Juniper Dunes Wilderness; Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, Coulee Dam National Recreation Area; 6 National Natural Landmarks, including Hobo Cedar Grove, likely the finest western red cedar grove in the US; Whitman Mission National Historic Site, Walla Walla; 90-100 miles of the Lewis and Clark Trail; Nez Perce National Historic Park - Trail of Tears; Clearwater/Snake National Recreation Trail; White Pine Scenic drive is an old growth western white pine stand having recently had a 400 year old tree, 6' diameter and 188' tall; numerous historical sites; petroglyphs and pictographs in Hells Canyon NRA.

Recreation: Alpine ski areas of Lookout Pass, Silver Mountain, Bald Mtn., Cottonwood Butte, Snowhaven, Bluewood, Mt. Spokane, and Schweitzer (112 miles); Silverwood Theme Park with above and below ground roller coaster; Coeur d’Alene Resort (Conde´ Nast Magazine named it the best in the world by readers 10 years ago); 40 golf courses, including the first (1991) and only movable floating green at the Coeur d’Alene Resort; white water rivers: Lochsa, lower Salmon, Snake (Hells Canyon segment), Selway, Grand Ronde and upper St. Joe; University of Idaho domed stadium for football, basketball, track and tennis (1^st in the West, 1975); many guest ranches, cross country skiing areas, float trips, rodeos, hot springs.

Rivers: Columbia (7th largest & 12th longest), Snake (24th largest & 13th longest) Wild and Scenic and it flows north); Salmon (Wild and Scenic, longest free flowing, un-dammed river in the lower 48 all within one state and it also flows north); Clearwater (Wild and Scenic); St. Joe, the world’s highest navigable stream (Wild and Scenic); Grand Ronde (Wild and Scenic); Lochsa (Wild and Scenic); Selway (Wild and Scenic).

Waterfalls: Elk River Falls (300'); Palouse Falls (200'); Spokane Falls with three distinct cataracts (Spokane is the only city in the US with a major waterfall downtown).

Weather: Snowfall of over 128", highest snowfall east of the Cascades and Sierras with a record over 70" of water in snow; temperatures extremes of 50 degrees below and 118 above; some of the most beautiful blue skies in summer and fall and fantastic sunsets year around.

Other interesting information about Moscow, the Palouse, and Idaho:

Agriculture: highest productive dryland wheat farming in the country; farmers have never had a disastrous crop season; Moscow, the home of world’s first cloned mule, Idaho Gem and a second, Utah Pioneer; the Palouse is the Pea and Lentil Capitol of the World; 25 alpaca/llama farms/ranches; Walla Walla onions; home to Cougar Gold cheese; 600' fence of iron wheels from steam engines, threshing machines, tractors, wagons, sewing machines, etc.

Political: Moscow was named by the first postmaster, probably after Moscow, PA (the next Moscow in size with only 1527 pop.), formerly called Paradise Valley and Hog Heaven; Latah Co., in which Moscow is the county seat, is the only county in the country established by an Act of Congress; 1^st Idaho state capitol, Lewiston.

Mining: Some of the largest copper and silver (was 1^st in world) mines in US, with deepest mine in the US; gold, emerald and star garnet mining (1st in nation - one of only two in world where 4-6 ray star garnets found - other in India), lead and zinc; petrified wood; some of the best clay in the world.

Indian Reservations: Coeur d’Alene, Colville, Kalispel, Nez Perce, Spokane, Umatilla.

Geographic: Moscow itself, the largest by far of 20 Moscows in the US, Idaho’s second most western city (117°1'32") after Lewiston (117°2'); Moscow is west of Homestead and Imnaha, OR, Las Vegas NV, Palm Springs, and parts of Death Valley and San Diego CA, all of Baja California except parts of Tijuana, all of South America and the Galapagos Islands; north of Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec, Canada and all of Eastern US east of Duluth MN except for 35 miles of Maine; north of Japan, most of China, and the southern half of Mongolia; it is within 165 miles of the Canadian border; the entire area covers parts of three other states, the interestingly named towns of Opportunity, Dayton, two Troys, (two Richlands within 140 miles), Enterprise, Headquarters, Slickpoo, Tumtum, Eureka, Starbuck, Santa, Dusty, Harvard, Princeton, and the former village railroad stops of Yale, Wellesley, Stanford, Vassar, Purdue, and Cornell.

Celebrities: Indian Chief Joseph; Actor/singer Bing Crosby (Spokane); Tennis Pro Jan-Michael Gambill (Spokane); Actress Lana Turner (Wallace); Opera star Patrice Munsel (Spokane); Opera star Carole Farley (Moscow); Classical guitarist Christopher Parkening (Kooskia); graduates of the University of Idaho: Undersecretary of State/Diplomat Philip Habib, Olympic Decathlon Champion Dan O’Brien and Green Bay Packer Great Jerry Kramer; Pro Basketball Great John Stockton graduated from Gonzaga; Moscow High School graduate and Pro Basketball All-American/Olympic Gold Medal winner Andrea Lloyd; UI Professor Malcolm Renfrew synthesized the Teflon polymer.

 Prepared by Dr. Joe Ulliman, Emeritus Professor of Forest Resources