Julyamsh 2010

Another extraordinary visual of our Native people in celebration on their ancestral homeland in Post Falls, Idaho. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe welcomed over 1,000 dancers and drummers from around the country and Canada for the three-day pow wow and tribal encampment. This stunning photograph of Nathan Chasing Horse (Lakota Soiux) was taken by my friend, Jahn Schmitz, who experienced Julyamsh for the first time this year. An album of my OnLocation pow wow photographs HERE.

On the beaten path

Sometimes you don't have to leave home to see the incredible masterpieces Mother Nature creates. In the flowers alongside my driveway I paused to watch this butterfly sip the nectar. It's mornings and scenes like this that make us happy to be alive in this little corner of North Idaho paradise.

North Idaho "Sand" Castle

Don't get me wrong, I love a tropical white sand beach as much as the next guy but the banks of our rivers are not created for playing in the sand. We float, we raft, we swim and kayak. Then there's jet skiing, wake boarding, sail boarding and good old fashioned swimming. Time on shore under the summer sun does provide the chance to create in a different way ... stacking a "castle" of river rocks.

In Plain Sight

Alongside Coeur d'Alene River Road in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest a white tail doe stands sentry in the brush. Two fawns waited across the road to join their mother.

Wild turkeys

On my way into Coeur d'Alene this mornng a hen turkey and at least 15 chicks (known as poults) were crossing E. Riverview Road. As I came around the corner the mother and about half the chicks crossed and the other chicks ran back to the other side of the road to hide in the rocks. I snapped a couple of photos and went on my way, certain the family of wild turkeys would be reunited.

Beach Time!

It took summer a while to get to North Idaho but it has definately arrived. Temperatures this week in the 90s will inspire lots of beach-going. Coeur d'Alene city beach is a popular place to cool off on a hot day!

Celebrating North Idaho

We know how to put on parades in this neck of the woods, from small towns to big cities ... a block long or miles long, everyone loves a parade. The American Heroes 4th of July parade in Coeur d'Alene was a Norman Rockwell slice of American life. An exuberant Madison Leonard, newly-minted America's Junior Miss who hails from Hayden Lake, was making her first hometown appearance since winning the title in Mobile, Alabama last month. Parade images HERE.

Arrrrr ...

A pirate ship was sighted on Lake Coeur d'Alene, filled with little mateys and pirates or three for the maiden voyage of the Pirates of the Coeur d'Alenes on the first day of July. The new attraction is part of Lake Coeur d'Alene Cruises.

Mountain top view

The majority of the photographs I've posted here for years, I've taken from not too far off the beaten North Idaho path. But if you're willing to ride a dirt bike several miles through the forest to an elevation of over 5,000 feet, like my husband did the last weekend of June, you can see some incredible views. Atop Grizzly Peak in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, Bert even found snow!