priest lake state park

Priest Lake Idaho is such a beautiful place. We live in Lake Havasu city AZ and head up to Priest Lake in August usually to take a break from the AZ summer heat. Well worth the drive. It's a gorgeous lake nestled amongst the forest and mountains. I highly recommend !!

A little known place of beauty that needs to be kept secret....it doesn't need a lot of tourists rushing through .....it's a slice of Heaven and the Garden of Eden that reaches back into the 20's of this great country. Little has changed over the years at Priest....if you love Nature, you will adore Priest Lake. Our family have spent many summers on the east side ...wild huckleberries, wild white daisies covering the mountain sides and trout in the lake...who wants to tell anyone else about it....a great place to meditate and get to know your true self. If you go to Priest Lake you must stay at least a week...best time is from June to September....winter is plenty cold.

I have been to Priest Lake many times over the years, and it's a gem. On the west side of the lake there are many resorts and nfs campgrounds. Coolin and the east shore offers state run campsites. Very nice but crowded in the peak season (4th of July to Labor day) and I recommend getting a reservation at least six months in advance if you plan to go during the peak season. This is a great boating lake... Big, not very crowded on the water. It often gets some afternoon chop from the wind. Most resorts and restaurants on the lake are easily accessible by boat.

Our group of adults and kids LOVED our camp experience at Priest Lake. We stayed at the northern-most campground in the park, Lionhead. Be forewarned that this campground is far from town and services and it is pretty basic (pit toilets, no plumbing, no hookups) but the beach, lake and campground are beautiful. The campsites are pretty good size and allow for more privacy than most campgrounds. The car pads/parking spots are small though. Very few sites in the park can accommodate an RV. We went with tent trailers and were somewhat challenged in fitting them on the allotted space. You should plan to bring all of your food/beverages with you for your stay as the drive back into town is long. The camp host sells ice, firewood and ice cream for the kiddos.

My friends and I stayed two nights at this wonderful place. We had five people in our party and two dogs. You can rent boats for the day. The campgrounds are cleaned twice a day and that includes the restrooms. There are showers, laundry mats, multiple restrooms, and even a camp store which sells just about everything you could want. You can rent just a plane tent spot or a rv site with full hookups. You can even rent cabins and mooring spots if you have a boat. There is a large sand beach to swim and fish. I just could go on and on about how nice this campground is, but to keep it short it was beyond amazing!

The Priest Lake Chamber claims that the lake area is the crown jewel of Idaho and I can see why. Priest Lake State Park, on the eastern side of the lake has spectacular views of the lake. The park has 3 units. Dickensheet is not even on the lake. We didn't even go in, but it's a small unit south of Coolin. The Lionhead unit, the most northern unit is quite pretty. We got there late in the day and unfortunately there were no places to park, so we ended up driving through. I can see why it is popular. We spent more time at the main unit at Indian Creek. Nice beach areas to enjoy the lake. There is even a beach where dogs are allowed, which is unusual as we found out. There are some nice historic items throughout the park and some nice trails including one that runs along Indian Creek. Like Heyburn, there is a small visitors center, but it does give you some nice information of the park including info on trails outside the park. Next to the center is a small grocery store and even a gas station, but when I walked by it was no surprise to see gas cost about 50 cents more than you would get in civilization. Parts of the drive to the park is quite spectacular on the east side because it hugs the lake shore where there are no trees and it makes for nice driving. The Indian Creek unit was my favorite part of my trip.Other nice places to visit around the park are plentiful. The Leonard Paul store in Coolin is a nice historic general store with gifts and ice cream. On the west side of the lake, the Priest Lake Museum tells a nice history of the area and has a lot of historic artifacts outside too. There is a nice day use area on the lake by the museum as well. A quieter day use area (Ledgewood Bay) can be found off Reeder Bay road. Some nice trails include the Lakeview Mountain trail near Nordman. I didn't take the whole thing, but after a couple of miles of going up it does lead to a nice viewpoint of the lake. Just south of there the Hanna Flats Grove trail is short historic stroll through the cedar trees. The best way to see Upper Priest Lake is to take the Navigation Trail. At the end of Reeder Bay road, the Beaver Creek campground is where you will find the trail head. It's an easy 3 miles each way to the first campground on Upper Priest Lake. You can go farther up if you want to. There are bear warnings, but I didn't see any. Plenty of bees though. They were everywhere we went. Every part of Priest Lake visited is quite beautiful and should not be missed. There is an outdoor visitor center off Highway 57 on the south part of the lake area right before the junction to Coolin if going north from Priest River.No arguments here for Priest Lake being a jewel.