Tubbs Hill, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Tubbs Hill is to Coeur d’Alene what Central Park is to Manhattan. It takes maybe three hours or so to explore Central Park, and Tubbs Hill will need no more than an hour to complete the main loop. There are trails to walk, run, and hike; there are countless viewpoints and space for more idle activities. This spot is recommended and used countless times for milestone photo sessions and is the hub for Coeur d’Alene’s fireworks shows. Everyone knows about it, and most people have visited it, even if they are not typically oriented to spending time outdoors. On any day of the year, you may find someone running the trail, young adults hanging out along any portion of the trails and shoreline, seniors stretching their legs, and families chasing their children as they explore.
I moved to Coeur d’Alene when my children were approximately 9-10 years old, and we spent countless hours on Tubbs Hill. We hiked the hill, then ran the hill together; we explored it for our science classes, and eventually, our time was spent with me getting in my workout on the trails while the kids were in the woods growing up and probably making choices that I do not ever need to know the details of. Now we are older, Tubbs Hill seems small, and the boys only visit it when they need to feel close to those memories.
Tubbs Hill is the first hike on my Couch to Scotchman Peak training plan. It is the top suggestion for city hikes in Appendix A of 100 Hikes in the Inland Northwest, where it is described as: A gem of a trail circumnavigates Tubbs Hill just southeast of the Coeur d’Alene Resort, with two-thirds of the route overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene and providing access to a few beaches. Trailheads are at the city boat-launch parking area or a parking area near 10th Street and Mountain Area (p 320). The trailhead near the resort is the most popular access point. It is connected to McEuen Park, which has bathrooms, a huge grassy area that hosts many live shows throughout summer and fall, a playground with water features, and during the winter months, an ice skating rink.
During the winter, although Tubbs Hill is accessible, it can often be so icy that it is not fun. Today some adventurous friends and I went to check it out so I could get new photos and finally write this blog. The trail was perfect. We wore traction devices, and those, combined with the fresh layer of snow over the base layers of ice provided an easy, no-slip walk around the main loop. It took us about an hour, and we intersected with one runner and only a couple of other people out with their dogs.
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2 Responses
Is this your official start to hiking the 100 hikes of Inland NW?
Maybe more just the official start to writing about it, since many of the hikes (like this one), will be repeats. I’ll make events for many of the hikes that are not in the appendix of the book 😊
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