Adventure 4: Heyburn State Park

Easy Pull

Just an hour door to door from our house awaits one very cool RV campsite. Tucked on the edge of the St Joe river delta at the bottom end of Lake Coeurd 'Alene, Heyburn State Park is perched just above the water. There are about fifty RV sites as well as some of the best tent camping sites to be had in Idaho. There is power and water, free showers, and the camp ground enjoys the gentle scent from pine trees all around. Aside from the convenience, the best part is that the park has a paved connecting road to the Trail of the Coeurd 'Alenes bicycle trail, which is a seventy-two mile paved rail trail that starts in Plummer, Idaho and ends in Mullan, Idaho. From the campground, the road meets the trail about five miles east of Plummer. It is eleven miles to Harrison, Idaho from the campground. Few trails offer what the Trail of the Coeurd 'Alenes offers. It is a three percent (flat) grade that follows the Coeurd 'Alene river toward Mullan. Moose and birds can be seen, usually a southwerestly wind can be felt, and the green river beckons like ribbon in the hair of lovely girl. Cars are forbidden, and the trail easily transports the imaginative mind back to the time of gold, silver, Jesuits, and Christian conversion. It's fabulous. For bikers like us, a place like this makes life very good, especially today.