Coeur d'Alene, ID

Our family loves to go swimming during the summer, well I guess you could say who doesn’t? Our work life allows us to spend lazy summer afternoons by lakes, rivers and any body of water we can find and one of our favorite places to swim and take in some rays is Beaver Bay in Farragut State Park in Athol Idaho.

Farragut State Park is located just north of Coeur D’alene about 20 miles from downtown. The park sits along side Lake Pend Oreille, our largest lake. The park used to be a military base and although most of the buildings are gone now, you can still find historical markers and some foundations of barracks on some of the hikes that are available. It is some of the best hiking, picnicking and camping in north Kootenai county. Not only can you camp, hike, swim and bike, but there is also a rifle and archery range as well as a disc golf course.

But let’s get back to Beaver Bay, my favorite part of the park. The first reason I love this park is because of… well.. just take a look:

Beaver Bay sits on the south side of the park right along the lake. The bay is separated from the lake by a large spit of beach and the mountains rise high above you on every side. It created this amazing scene of a wonderful lagoon with cool clear water and lots of beach area for you and your family. The lake sits on the other side of this spit of beach and boaters, floaters and jet ski’s can be seen on this side of the lake. It just is an amazing setting for an afternoon swim.

The facilities have more than adequate bathrooms with changing rooms and more than enough parking. It’s a bit of a hideaway so there aren’t many locals coming up there to swim, just campers and hikers. It is a slight hike down to the beach, but we took our baby as it was stroller accessible. We have a stroller like this, but these types of strollers we saw other families use with a little more ease.

We like to lay down a blanket on the spit of beach between the lake and the bay and have a picnic. We travel with three kids so this is definitely a family friendly area. The bay itself isn’t too deep, although I couldn’t stand in the middle. We’ve also never really seen it too crowded. The beach extends all the way around the lagoon. Here is a picture from the spit:

So how do you get to Beaver Bay? Great question. Here are directions from Downtown Coeur d’Alene:

• Head north on I-90 towards Sandpoint Idaho
• Turn right on Hwy 54
• You’ll see signs for the ranger station after about 3.5 miles.

When you get there, you will need to purchase a day pas for $4 per car. You can purchase annual passed for $25, it’s a pretty cheap ticket and it helps to keep the park running. For more information on the park, check out the State’s website.

We have learned one thing about Beaver Bay and other parks in Coeur d’Alene and surrounding areas. If you are picnicking and you don’t like bees, then make sure you leave the pop at home. We love to picnic while we are swimming and once we left the pop at home, the bees left as alone and we had a great time. It doesn’t seem like much, but we have sat next to friends who brought cans of pop and they had a bee problem, and our water kept them away. Just something to think about.

Here are some of the picnic baskets and packs that we recommend for a picnic and swim at Beaver Bay and other areas in North Idaho:

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