We were passing through the town of Coeur d'Alene on a road trip and stayed overnight at the Beauty Creek Campground. We noticed that a Bikepacking.com route, The Idaho Panhandle Ramble (PanRam), went right past our campsite, so we followed a small portion of their route and then explored a bit on our own. We were pleasantly surprised to find we could easily piece together a nice little loop — it just might be the best route we didn't pre-plan!
Since the route starts/finishes at the Mineral Ridge Trailhead parking lot, you will get to enjoy a tiny bit of the picturesque views of Lake Coeur D'Alene. According to the website, "Lake Coeur D'Alene offers excellent boating, fishing and canoeing. Towns around the lake offer opportunities for parasailing, ferry rides, paddle boating and sea plane rides."
Beauty Creek sits in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, flanked by mountains to the west and the Bitterroots to the east, which together provide amazing scenery. As you might imagine, Beauty Creek Road follows Beauty Creek, and it's aptly named: the forest is lush, the water was flowing, and it was along this road that we spotted a big Barred Owl, which was a huge highlight!
The steady 6–7-mile climb varies between a 3–6% grade, then plateaus for about two miles before heading back down. Views of Red Horse Mountain and Cottonwood Peak are nice at the top, and vehicle traffic was pretty much non-existent!
Strava makes it look like the whole climb and the first 6.5 miles are gravel, but it's more like an unmaintained, poorly paved road damaged with many potholes (the campground host called it "pothole road"). While this is easy to navigate on a gravel bike going up, it meant you couldn't entirely let it rip on the descent.
Since we didn't exactly plan this route and didn't have all day to play, we only got to experience a small amount of what this area has to offer. It certainly seems there is much, much more you could enjoy. (We hope to go back!)
Do this ride if you are in the Coeur D'Alene area and want a short and sweet mixed surface gravel ride through the Idaho Panhandle National Forest with spectacular nature and wildlife.
We have the route starting/finishing from the Mineral Ridge Trailhead parking lot. Besides parking (and hiking), the trailhead has picnic shelters with tables, drinking water, pit toilets, and trash receptacles.
We rode this loop in a clockwise direction, which meant we climbed on the "pavement" and descended longer on dirt. In our opinion, it would be equally pleasant in the other direction. As mentioned before, the pavement had lots of potholes, and the dirt sections were not terribly chunky or technical. We had 45–50mm gravel tires and they were perfect at a tire pressure of around 25psi.
There are no other services along the route. There is a second pit toilet at the Beauty Creek Campground, but that's also right at the beginning/end of the ride.
Come prepared with sports nutrition/food since there are no stores or cafes on this route. If you're looking for post-ride food or beverages, you'll need to drive into the town center of Coeur d'Alene, which is about 12 miles from the Mineral Ridge Trailhead. We stopped at Bakery by the Lake and can recommend their chocolate croissant!
Laura & Rose
Laura Karpinski and Rose Barcklow are the creators of Gravel Bike Adventures. Click on the About page to learn more about them.
