Did that drive many times when i lived in kalispell... miss it so much...
Moving out of kalispell has to be outright depressing. Like when people move to Texas from california they hide the sadness well behind fabrications of “honestly I wouldn’t go back with all the money in the world” but I couldn’t even lie and say something like that about anywhere in the Rocky Mountains. I’d just be transparently depressed I got priced out of heaven.
It really is. I moved from Kalispell to Bozeman to finish my degree. Being that close to GNP and leaving all my friends I made and my roommates (best I've ever had) was really sad. Now it's too unaffordable for me to consider moving back
So I am 5th gen Flathead valley but live in Alaska right now and I am the asshole with AK plates but a MT sticker in the window. My dad knew how valuable it would be someday and did a great job of holding on to most of the family homestead
That me! 5th generation Montanan lived in Alaska for almost 30 years! I do miss the flathead though but AK fits the bill.
I'm a 5th Generation Alaskan stuck in MT because the job is to good to leave.
We should trade places.
I’m a 5th generation New Mexican stuck in Texas cause the job is too hard to leave lol
I am not trading places with you.
I ran a Tough Mudder with some friends in Ft. Worth in August a couple years ago, and was pretty certain I was going to die.
A different friend is trying to get me to come down to Austin this summer. They don't seem to understand that it's not just no, but hell no.
They won't visit me in MT in winter, I am not coming to Texas in the summer.
An MT winter is infinitely more pleasant than a summer in Austin.
As I like to point out... if I get cold I can always add layers, if I get too hot I eventually run out clothes and get arrested.
Yeah I feel lucky I followed my heart after college and ate lentils/beans so I could buy a place in the mountains in Colorado. I could not cope with having to move back to the Midwest or south.
Kalispell can be quite depressing especially in the winter months and if you’re a young person trying to experience new things
There’s enough skiing, camping and unique towns in driving distance to make up for that IMO. It’s probably not the place to go if you want to club and party and rave but if you just want to go outdoors and snowmobile, mountain bike, ski, hike, camp, dirt bike etc. (and you have to want to be outside in snow, rain and sun) in a beyond gorgeous place it’s top 5 in the US.
It’s not for everyone but nowhere is, I’d get very depressed without snow personally.
As a Canadian from just a little north of you I agree. No where is for everyone, and some places are just to damn hot.
I went to glacier last year. I’m a beach guy 100% of the time but when I get real low and down I always channel the that glacier trip. It’s awe inspiring. Absolutely magical.
I miss Kalispell every day. I’m from Illinois, but we took family trips to Ashley Lake nearly every summer b/t the ages of six and 24. I dream about it all the time. My only solace is living next to Lake Michigan, but I hope to get back up to northwestern Montana in the next couple years for vacation!
I was scrolling through Google maps one night years ago and found Kalispell. I have the weirdest urge to visit some day just because
100% worth doing. Whitefish is great as well. Everything in that Flathead Valley and Glacier National Park is pretty impresssive.
My old folks live near Moscow ID and it's beautiful. The rolling hills are unforgettable.
Also pretty much the default Windows 7 background was from that area, so everyone feels eerily at home there.
WSU and one of the Idaho universities are within 10 miles from each other in that area with a neat bike path connecting then, so the landscape is pocked with bustling little college towns with research centers and startups and wineries and buses and other amenities.
Minor correction, it’s the University of Idaho. I’m a Vandal.
I think you might mean Windows XP.
The rolling greens hills with a nice blue sky and some fluffy white clouds hovering about on a tranquil summer afternoon? That’s actually Sonoma, CA.
The terrain and geography around Moscow is vastly different than most of the circled area
Yeah, Idaho and Russia have their differences after all lmao
Lol, there is a Moscow Idaho…though I assume you were being sarcastic…
My father lived in Lewiston for a while…neat area but not really in the circle area. I’m assuming the river adds too much to the geography to where it’s not the same in the circled area.
It’s sad that the only reason I recognize that town name is because of a murder spree. Seems surrounded by beauty
I do this drive to Missoula! Love the mountain towns!
Boss tells me how back in college they'd go to Wallace with a case of beer to hit up the whorehouse. Things used to be different back in the day.
My general comment on N Idaho. Beautiful land ruined by idiots and racists.
My dad lives in Elk City. It's the largest area in the lower 48 without paved roads. Outdoorsman Paradise. It's also full of characters. One of his neighbors is a beaver trapper and his name is Joe King.
I lived in that area, you forgot all the white supremacy. Maybe you just can't see it on a driveby though.
Came here to mention this, stopped for gas outside of Coeur d’alene and went in to get a pack of cigarettes and a drink and the guy behind the counter had a straight up wehrmacht eagle tattoo showing on his chest
You can definitely see it even driving by. I stayed there for a night last year and could feel it. The city just gives a yuck factor. After we left, we researched it and found out more about the white supremacy connections.
The lake is beautiful though.
Beautiful small towns full of neo Nazis:D
Isn't that where Ruby Ridge is?
Yes it is.
Closest to Naples Idaho. The bar where he met with the agent is still there in Naples. There is an off road park up there and Naples also leads to Roman Nose, one of the best alpine lakes in the area.
Unpopular opinion: I have no sympathy for that guy after he went and rubbed elbows with neo nazis. He was a piece of shit and he deserved everything he got.
The feds did a lot of fucked up shit on that day but ultimately if Randy Weaver hadn’t been arms dealing for Neo-nazi militias none of it would have ever happened
Seriously, what percentage of people in this area are neo-nazis? I'm thinking > 50%
Actual Neo Nazis? Probably way less than 50%
But people who think flying a Confederate flag is A-ok because of "heritage" and it's "not necessarily a hate symbol"? I'd say over 50%
People who casually drop the n word with a hard R on the regular? Maybe 20-25%
People who'd greenlight a fascist dictatorship as long as it was based on "Christian values"? I'm gonna say 80%
Source: family has property juuuuust south of the circle on the map. I've spent a good amount of time there, including living there for a while. It's a beautiful place, but fiercely Republican, massively religious, and not somewhere I'd feel comfortable being openly gay, or anything other than white.
Seriously? 20?
I mean someone who send his wife and daughter into a shed when they have their periods, and where his wife gave birth probably isn't a very good dude. Controversial take I know, I know!
being a bad person ≠ having your child and wife shot tho.
Idk tho, I never met the guy, have you?
A child deserved to be shot?
Still crazy overreaction by feds.
People ignoring the fact that the government didn’t kill any of the people supposedly arms dealing but a 14 year old kid and the targets wife
Also ignoring the $3 million in restitution awarded to the Weaver family
And dog.
Being a piece of shit doesn't excuse the government murdering his family.
and still filled with religious nuts, survivalists, and white supremacists.
I’d hardly say “filled with”.
It’s pretty desolate. You gotta go looking for those types. They’re not exactly keen to interact with outsiders either.
Grew up and lived here until about 2 years ago. Specifically near Lake Pend Oreille. Beauty is almost unmatched. The summers can be extremely hot, sometimes not seeing rain for what feels like months. The winter is long. Typically pretty mild with rain but can be severe at times. There is usually a massive difference in snowfall between the Couer d’Alene/Spokane are where it’s typical to have no snow on the ground, and North towards Sandpoint where the snow sticks through the winter. The area is completely painted by its glacial past, I was told as a kid that the monarch mountains on the east side of the lake served as a probable blockage or breaking point of the ice dam holding back Lake Missoula.
For those that don’t know, Lake Pend Oreille is over 1150ft deep, the east side of the lake is nothing but steep mountain sides and is thus un-developable and isolated. Lake conditions can degrade with severe weather and looks more like an inland sea. The Navy has an installation on the south end of the lake for acoustics research and was once home to the Farragut, the largest naval base in the world 80 years ago. They even used German POWs to clear snow off the football field for an Idaho Vandals game in Moscow.
As fas as people go, I grew up hearing about the old Aryan Compound. I naively thought that those times and people were long gone, but as I’ve aged I can see that the poison still lingers through the community. Sandpoint is filled with the ultra liberal resort goers and the ultra conservatives that have roots in the area from the logging industry and homesteading. The state in general has become increasingly conservative as it’s attracted other conservatives from California, Oregon, etc. I’d say 90% of migrants to the state are extremely conservative, yet the whole area is united by collective hatred towards “liberal” Californians moving in and ruining the area, a completely false narrative. There is an Atlantic article I believe talking about this phenomenon. Very amusing.
So I guess this place is an area of extremes. Hot and cold, extremely conservative and liberal. Some of the nicest people you could hope to meet and some of the most vile. Sadly with the state of the housing market, everyone I graduated with has either had to leave the area or is still living with their parents. The brain drain is real, but the area is seeing an explosion in growth.
What do the people who move there do? Retirees or remote workers? Not quibbling I just don't understand the dynamic.
I live here. Btw I’m Hispanic but am generally considered “white-passing” (somewhat fair skin that tans easily, light brown hair)
EDIT: I’m getting a lot of comments about why I would include this statement above, I thought it was obvious. Clearly, there is a racism problem in the area, but I don’t think it’s quite as bad as some people make it out to be (it’s still not great). The ones making the news for the wrong reasons are a few dozen people out of 200k in the area. A white person saying “it’s not that bad” is different than a Latino person saying “it’s not that bad”. Bcs of my skin tone, I don’t get slurs hurled at me at gas stations or whatever. Also, that happens rarely, but I know it does happen. It’ll also happen if look clearly LGBTQ+. Sorry, it’s just the reality of the situation here, I can’t deliver vigilante justice like some people have suggested. If you visit - and I think you should, it’s a nice place with gorgeous scenery -the racists won’t be at the lakefront restaurants, or skiing, or hiking. Go to downtown Coeur d Alene and Sandpoint. Avoid Athol and Bonners Ferry. Don’t go to a random dive bar that looks like shit.
There’s one small city (about 100K people in the city+neighboring towns) Coeur d Alene which sits on the Coeur d Alene lake. It’s definitely a tourism hotspot bcs of the lake and there’s 3 nearby ski resorts. There’s very little public transport, but everything is generally pretty clean and no homeless people. Homeless people are actually bussed to Washington. Living here is like any other small city, the Spokane airport is only 45 min away.
Wages are pretty low and haven’t kept pace with rising home prices so there’s a fair bit of animosity of out of staters coming in. 90% of people are fine, but there is a 10% outspoken far right crowd. This seems to have gotten worse in the past 5 years as far righters from other states are moving here bcs they heard it was a conservative haven.
There’s other towns (Kellogg, Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry) that are more or less similar to other small towns in America. People tend to be more religious, and tend to be more conservative. Sandpoint is somewhat of an exception where it leans fairly liberal - it’s the home of Schweitzer ski resort which is an amazing resort but specifically targeting rich consumers. Some of the local ski/snowboard community doesn’t like this approach and prefers less commercialized resorts like Lookout.
In general, people tend to be pretty outdoorsy here given the amazing state parks, hikes, lakes, etc. Lots of people enjoy hunting and there’s a lot of area to do that. It’s a very densely forested area (pine trees) and mountainous as well so mountain biking is popular as well. However there’s a lot of fertile valleys so there’s quite a bit of agriculture, farmers markets are very popular during the warm months.
Locals tend to be not super highly educated bcs there’s no universities out here except a community college in Coeur d Alene. There’s very few corporate jobs so young people have to move away after high school to find work unless they’re working blue collar jobs. In general, there’s quite of bit of brain drain that’s been going on for decades.
Happy to answer any questions. I love it here (I work remotely), I would hate to move back to a big city where there’s way more crime, homelessness and filth. I’m not sure I would recommend it to someone who is clearly a minority (black, Asian) bcs there are some shitheads out here who will harass you. It wouldn’t happen everyday but even a few times a year seems like it would wear on you pretty quickly.
Last edit, specifically on ‘bussing’ homeless people, copied from my comment below:
There are 0 services for homeless people in Idaho. In Idaho, when a police officer sees a vagrant, they will approach and explain to them that there are no services but Spokane (across the state border in Washington) has several different services including food pantries, substance abuse help, shelters and public transport (there’s basically none in Idaho). Then they offer to drive them wherever they want, as long as it’s not crazy far away and it’s in Washington. This process is done with 0 aggression or threatening, it’s simply an offer to drive them somewhere for free that’s probably way better for them. I think they also offer water and some other basic stuff.
As you might expect, almost every homeless person accepts this bcs it’s actually a pretty good deal for them. And then there are no homeless people in Coeur d Alene but there’s a pretty significant homeless issue in Spokane, and in Washington as a whole.
This guy Panhandles. Couldn't agree more 😂
I was in CDA while visiting Spokane.
It was gorgeous; I get the brain drain part though
The best part are the secret beaches
+1 for Sandpoint, it's a nice little town on Lake Pon de Reille with a half decent bar scene! I spent 2 months working at the Forest Station in Bonner's Ferry and always enjoyed coming down to spend time on the lake, both there and in CDA. You also gotta try a Huckleberry milkshakes, you can get them at many places during the summer when the berries are in season. You can also pick them in the wild while you're hiking which is always fun.
If you're into hiking there are also a lot of good hikes of there. Kootenai national forest is beautiful but not super well trafficked since you're kinda in the middle of nowhere, especially in terms of large population centers. I ready loved some of the ones along the Idaho/Montana border, but they're all gorgeous.
I love this sub.
Appreciate the very honest take. This area of Idaho has been on list to visit for a while. I bet the night sky is beautiful out there.
Anytime a person has to start by saying they are “white-passing” makes me weary of even visiting a place, unfortunately. 😬
I hear ya. I put that in there because I felt my viewpoint as a minority would be uncommon. A white person saying it’s not a racist area is a bit different than a non-white person saying the same thing. I fully admit that I’m not an obvious minority and wouldn’t attract the same attention as someone who is more obviously ethnic.
Also, this area gets thousands of international tourists every year, at different seasons. You’re extremely unlikely to be in the places where racists hang out - they’ll be at the shitty dive bars, not at the lake front restaurants.
I'm white, it's racist over there. They're reserved in their opinions, but open up and start sharing opinions once they get comfortable around you. You can really tell in the jokes they make about serious topics. Most of them won't go out of their way to harass someone, but they'll quietly judge and make comments when they think they won't be overheard. Also, it used to be the seat of the Aryan Nations about 20 years ago. It's not anymore, but the people who were a part of that didn't just disappear or reform.
I was in the area when Idaho was getting the most covid cases per day, stopped by a small gun store on the way from Couer D’Alene to sandpoint and the guy had a sign that said “masks not allowed.” He looked like he’d be a Nazi and had three big mean German shepherds he told me “weren’t pettin dogs.” Kicked me out when he asked where I was from and I said Oregon, said, “yeah you look like it, you can leave”
Feel I got a nice authentic panhandle experience
lol I live here and that sounds exactly like what I would expect. Covid was real fun working in healthcare with masks required 😩😩
I fully admit that I’m not an obvious minority
Do people think you're "one of them", and say blatantly racist things in front of you?
That has happened, yes. It was a crowd on lifties/other ski resorts workers in Sandpoint. I left that party fairly quickly
I totally understand what you’re saying because I’m originally from Brazil but I visited coeur d’alene and Sandpoint. Nobody gave a shit about my accent, in fact people were nice when they asked me where I am from and I said Brazil, and I assumed they were nice because I am white. As an immigrant I don’t know if I would feel comfortable living there. Nonetheless, beautiful place! Loved Wallace, full of history, beautiful nature, even made a friend there!
I'm blonde hair, blue eyed man who was born and raised in the Sandpoint area. I had people, in a professional setting no less, tell me they moved there to get away from Cali, and their favorite part of living there was when they go out to eat, everyone is "this color". Honestly I often felt that when people saw white guy from Idaho, they'd go full mask off racist, because I was obviously down with their cause.
I left that area for the Appalachians, specifically the blue ridge mountains. There's much less affluence here, and the obvious history, yet I hear far less casual or not so casual racism here. People are also less angry, less violent, and less inclined to display their political opinions on every surface they own.
Hayden Idaho is just north of coeur d'Alene there. All you need to look up is the Aryan Nations compound raid. That being said, most people in the surrounding areas aren't aware of how many from the Aryan nations are still around because they're usually pretty quiet in public. You'll notice the tattoos, though, and if they think you're white and they warm up to a you a little, they'll start spewing. Would not live in rural areas there as a minority. I have to go that way for work occasionally, and it's solid Trump country over there, if you believe the signs.
Imo, cda is not worth stopping at. It's pretty, but too crowded. Its already a population center, and then everyone from spokane and other neighboring cities head that way after work and on the weekends. You'll be better off making the trip to Sandpoint further north. Smaller town and nicer people, but still have all the outdoors and lake Ponderay is right there, it's huge. Schweitzer MT is right there after, but as mentioned above, it can be expensive. Sometimes, the local stores will sell discounted lift passes.
Hayden is gorgeous too. Absolutely beautiful location. Definitely a creepy vibe though.
I lived a maybe 5min drive from the compound, went to school with the dude who sued and helped take those assholes down. I got to hear his side of the incident firsthand when we were giving him a ride home one day, pretty wild. I’d say at least everyone I knew at the time absolutely hated the dark shadow that the compound had over us locals. Good riddance.
Was he able to live life safely afterwards? The neo Nazi crowd gets away with a lot of shit without much police interruption
Sure hope so. I had moved away before the trial ended and wasn’t the best about staying in touch with folks. Actually just drove by the old compound last year out of curiosity and reminded me how it’s such a beautiful area and such a shame for the AN to leave such a shitstain across that whole region.
What do you expect the police to do, arrest themselves?
A beautiful geographical area full of awful racist humans. Say no more.
*wary, or leery, but not weary
I'm weary of that mix-up.
Farcry 5 was inspired by the "separatists" living in and around Coeur d'Alene. So, yeah. My friend's half Iranian and half Chinese, his baby momma's family is from CDA and she told him that "it's best if family comes down to visit us, than we go visit them".
It's one of the most racist places in the country. My mom was born there. I've lived there. Absolutely beautiful. But, not the safest for minorities.
You're tired?
I’m not sure I would recommend it to someone who is clearly a minority (black, Asian) bcs there are some shitheads out here who will harass you.
I'm Asian and a physician. For a job in that area, I was offered salary that was literally 2x of what I'm earning now here in Chicago. When I said no, the hospital said I didn't have to live there and offered to just fly me in every other week.
Glad to see that I made the right move 😅
Yeah I think it wouldn’t have been a great experience. Not just race wise but because of Covid, a huge part of the conservative population distrusts medical professionals. I’m sure you would’ve had to deal with some absolutely horrific patients at the hospital here.
Bonners is a dumpster fire for anyone not white & Christian fundamentalist & supremacist. There's definitely good people there, but their voices get drowned out by the rest.
There’s still a quite small influence from AN I’ve noticed there. Not nearly as much as years past tho. Also, doesn’t Moscow have a satellite university in the area? Thought they did at one point? CDA is a beautiful area
Yeah I think they’ll always be around. Not much we can do about I think? They’re not doing any public events, I’m sure they’re doing some private stuff.
Yeah the University of Idaho does classes/programs in partnership with the community college. It’s not a true satellite campus with dorms, they just have some professors here and do remote classes. I think they have some stellar niche programs like fish conservation, but in general there isn’t a large volume of students.
Absolutely gorgeous nature, great for outdoor activities. I try to be accepting, but man the people are generally uneducated and judgemental. Lots of religious extremism.
Lots of "sovereign citizens" too...
A lot of racists as well. Coeur d'Alene is a well known neo-nazi area.
An excellent amusement park tho
It really is an underrated amusement park for where it is.
I had come down from Canada at the time, most Canadian liquor stores wouldn't sell to me because I was 15, not 19. Thankfully no one worries about selling beer and liquor to 15 year olds in Idaho.
Nice to know that some racists are not ageists.
Heck yeah Silverwood
That's the one
It seems the trade off for good amusement parks is bigotry
I think Coeur d'Alene city itself is progressive; it's also stunningly beautiful. But just outside the city are a whole load of neo-nazi, sovereign-citizens, survivalist militias, etc.
Ironic, considering 'pan' is literally in the name of the area
So is "handle," as in "How do I handle knowing that these whackjobs exist and believe their own bullshit?"
David Hinckson was a close family friend and prominent sovereign citizen from Grangeville. I grew up listening to his "seminars" and tapes.
Dude went to prison for life for hiring a hitman against a federal judge. The sov cits are legit criminally insane. Yes, I grew up sovereign and am lucky to have gotten out of it.
Plenty of white supremacist types. Religious extremists, radical conservatives. The land is nice the people are awful.
The worst part of it is we got them to go into the shadows and for the years I was growing up it was rare to see white supremacy brought up in the present tense but between the hatred of Obama and Trump they wormed their way out of the woodwork again and move there more and more by the day under the claim of just being gop members.
Interestingly, that area was solid Democratic for years because of the unions and mining.
It doesn't get better on the Canadian side. A mile north of the border is a town called Rykerts with this crazy cult church that runs the town. I kid you not the top Google Review on the church is:
"My sister became a member of the congregation, I haven't seen her in 14 years.
Please be careful if you are interested in this “religious group” "
For some reason that one valley between the US and Canada is just mental. Rest of BC is fine ofcourse.
Lots of trump voters
This is the story of America, the nicest environments are inhabited by the worst people
Sucks. I’d love to live someplace like this, remote and surrounded by beautiful nature… it’s how I was raised and I miss that simplicity quite a bit.
But I’m openly gay and most of these places seem pretty uninviting to anyone who isn’t white and Christian. I miss the ease of small town life and crave that simplicity the older I get, but idk where tf to look at this point.
The towns that ARE openly accepting of everyone are usually tourist hotspots with million dollar starter homes.
I'm the mom of 2 queer kids. I'd let them live in Pullman. Missoula, MT might be worth checking out, too.
Missoula is an amazing area. Lived there half my life. The only thing keeping me from going back is that it's terribly expensive to live there now.
I'm gay and I lived in Eastern Washington near Idaho in high school. As much as I loved finding parents and community members like you, you're rare there. I was so happy to leave when I finished high school.
Come to Ireland 🇮🇪
Is it like that on the Canadian side too?
No, much more liberal on the Canadian side of the border.
I'm sure it dissipates but immediately next to the border is Rykerts, BC and the town has a crazy religious cult. Their church has google reviews and the first one is literally, "My sister became a member of the congregation, I haven't seen her in 14 years.Please be careful if you are interested in this “religious group”."
I've also heard about this town in Youtube videos prior to seeing this.
That dude who got in a shoot out with the feds at ruby ridge from that area, the area around Couer d'Alene is a gorgeous, and the Palouse area around Moscow/Pullman is gorgeous, those areas also have a decent proportion of normal folks, plenty of kooks as well but its like half and half. The rest of it is loaded with rednecks though.
100%. We stopped within this circle once on a road trip coming from Canada- I’m visibly queer and have never gotten so many snide comments from strangers in my life- and I’ve travelled a bit.
But the landscapes are so so incredibly gorgeous. Still a great trip overall.
I also stopped here on a road trip coming from Canada during the pandemic (fall 2021). Walked into a gas station wearing a mask (just a few miles over the border masks and vaccines were mandatory EVERYWHERE) and got stared at like I was an alien by the cashier.
sounds like FarCry5
This is where I’m from. I find it to be very beautiful with large pines and small towns scattered about. I’m Native American so I have a strong connection to the land and I wish to return when I’m older. I kinda had a bad time growing up there but that’s mostly my own fault.
Reddit is not a big fan of Idaho, especially Northern Idaho but I will always love it.
If you had a bad time while you were growing up, it wasn’t your fault. You were still growing up. As the adult you are today, offer the child that you were your forgiveness.
The Center of the Universe is in Wallace.
Sydney Sweeney comes from there.
She’s from Spokane.
It's in the circle... But you're right. Not Idaho
She looks it
Beautiful place but filled with a lot of Aryan nation dip shits. The Utah NCAA women's team was there and kept getting harassed by racists, even being stalked at some point. This was only a month and a half ago
The Silver Valley is nice. People try to make it out as white supremacist hicksville but half the people I've met here have moved here from other parts of the country and it's more of a purple region than strictly red. As a mexican woman living here it's great being able to walk around town (Wallace specifically) at night and not have to worry about anything bad happening. The scenery is beautiful and there's a lot of trails to explore all around.
Glad its gotten better. I lived there 25 years ago and still remember the cops parking outside a hotel where two black men were staying, waiting to escort them out the next day. My impression of it has been frozen in time all these years.
Stunning beauty and white supremacy. I think they make salad dressings up there too.
Isn’t that where the KKK retreated to after they tried abolishing it in the South?
Basically. Idaho is full of white supremacists hiding out in the remote parts of a state that is already pretty remote. The guy who wrote “Fight Club”s father was murdered by white supremacists in Idaho, not so fun fact.
There's one famous story everybody in the non-coastal PNW area knows about which happened in the 90s I think. This Native American mom was driving her kid when she was pulled over and got beaten by these KKK people. When I lived on that side of the country growing up, I remember a friend of my parent's telling them that they went into a movie rental place and wandered into a dark backroom. They turned on a light, and the whole thing was swastikas and nazi DVDs.
That's what took them down. They sued the crap out of them destroying the AN.
My GF grew up there in basically a conservative Christian cult. Her stories are crazy. She’ll never go back even to visit.
Idaho panhandle is racist as fuck. It's a shame because it's such a beautiful area.
This is the boiled-down truth.
I went to the University of Idaho (and Wazzu in Pullman) in Moscow, ID and it was amazing. Small college town that was quite liberal (2000-2002) in my early 20's who loved all things outdoors.
Its the Palouse area, where after an ice damn broke to the west and the flow and glaciers created rolling hills and awesome scenery.
Skiing (Schweitzer, Silver, Lookout Pass), rivers (Salmon, Snake) for rafting, kayaking, fishing, hikes and backpacking and biking through Lewis and Clark country, the Bitterroot Mtns, Hell's Canyon (Seven Devils Lake was a spot we frequented) seeing the Auroras in the winter, stars and the Milky Way on Moonless nights high up in the mountains camping.
I'm skipping the obvious political stuff, just my experiences attending school there two decades ago.
Man, couldn't have asked for more as an outdoors type of person.
There's a great Theme & Waterpark in that area: Silverwood/Boulder Beach.
As a kid from Calgary, we'd come here for summer vacation and used to laugh because in Calgary, there's a small town on the outskirts called Balzac and we'd vacation in Athol.
Post Falls to Coeur d' Alene is nice, growing a bit too fast. Beautiful lakes and scenery. Mostly feels like just another town until you talk to a neighbor and you hear some bizarre and extreme political views. Doesn't happen a lot but enough to be noticed.
Not very diverse but CDA does get international tourists come in, especially in the summer.
Outside the PF to CDA area it gets a lot more rural, a lot less educated, and a lot more MAGA.
University of Idaho is in this region. Surprisingly good university and the state offers pretty great incentives for state high schoolers to stay in state.
Not even just MAGA, they go to Q-Anon levels of insane up there
There's a killer volcano there. Dante's Peak...
Gives Eastern Washington a bad reputation is what this part of Idaho does. Half black and I avoid northern Idaho like the plague. They love to talk shit about Liberal Washington but it’s funny how many Idaho plates on cars you’ll see in Spokane from people coming here to work. Have no love for the region, it is beautiful though, no doubt.
I was born in sandpoint.
Racist and white mostly. Used to be a very small town. Now there's lots of tourism and big money that came up to live on the lakes.
Always grew up to stories about not going into the forests between sandpoint and spokane at night or the chain gangs would catch you and kill you. That, KKK or the biker gangs.
White supremacy and KKK
The hills have eyes
That area is very, very white.
Its funny to see all the comments on Aryan Nations and racists up in the panahandle. I lived there most of my life and then moved to Texas. North Idaho is not perfect dont get me wrong but its inherent racisim is nothing compared to Texas. I was stunned and shocked when I moved here saw how things are here
We recently hate-crimed the Utah women’s basketball team. So that’s about where we are. Small, racist, and against any form of progress.
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21d
My aunt got convinced to move there from Sacramento by her second husband who was pretty much exactly that.
Loved his daily hours-long appointment with his Fox News and his shouting matches with relatives over climate change denial and his t-shirt that said "Idaho is what America was", as if he was the rightful heir to this country. Dude was an asshole.
Terrible place to retire, with a scarcity of available medical services.
My wife was born and raised in that circle. It’s a beautiful country. it’s a place where people go to get lost… whether you’re out to enjoy nature, or you just killed 5 people.
There’s always colorful people around, but it really is a fantastic place to be. I love going up there for a reset.
The nature is amazingly beautiful there, but there is unfortunately a ton of racist idiots that live there. It's a shame there are so many beautiful places in my country that I cannot comfortably visit just because of the color of my skin.
It’s beautiful but full of MAGA weirdos unfortunately
Beautiful, but racist.
That there is MAGA country.
Extremely beautiful but it’s also the part of Idaho that gives us our bad rep. You probably won’t find anywhere north of the Dixon line as openly racist as this.
Natural beauty and kind people? That’s eastern Idaho. The Mormons are cultish and occasionally silently judgy, but they’re nice enough people
It’s very under rated, especially in the summer. There’s a huge lake that’s great for boating. A ski resort that has good hiking. Honestly just a nice place to visit that most people don’t think to go to.
Wonderful for the most part. Inner NW rainforest. Quick drive up to Canada. 10/10.
Potato caboose
Skiing, hiking, enjoying the peaceful nights. Moose and blackbear wandering into the driveway. People sneaking pot from washington and smoking it under the northern stars to the sound of coyotes yelping beyond the bush.
If, while in that area, someone asks you to cut the barrel of their shotgun don't do it...
Beautiful landscape, conservative humans
Racism
Racist.
Skinheads and white power. All over the place. It's a dark dark place.
Lots of white supremacist militias
There are some groups of nazis in there
Nazis mostly
Lot of Nazis up there
Racist
White. Every white. And guns. Lots of guns.
Oh god..
Half the population is inane. Like, the hills have eyes shit. Some of the most depraved red necks iv ever experienced. Super racist/white supremacist. There are several hate groups that function out of N. Idaho.
My uncle lived up there and I was spent a few summers up there.. fuxkin wild stories
I’m sure it’s alwight if you’re the right kind of person
I’m from the south and even here we hear that it’s absolutely sun down city pretty much that entire state.
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21d
It’s beautiful but don’t stop if you’re not white, straight and cis. Odds are it won’t end well
Some Nazis up there probably
Lots o' nazis tbh
That's where the Aryan Nations are headquartered https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/northwest/idaho/article262503492.html
It's full of white supremacists. The kind that stockpile guns and ammo and have secret camps in the woods and shit. Obviously not everyone is like that, but there sure is a lot of them that are.
I've driven through that part of Idaho on my way from Calgary to Seattle or Portland a few times. It's beautiful with big lakes and forested mountains. The preponderance of bible-thumping billboards and Christian radio stations make me think there are a lot of religious loonies there, though, unfortunately.
Mostly racist, unfortunately
All I know about the area is there was an Aryan Nations compound there until like 2005 and there was a huge weed smuggling outfit that they made a movie about with Ron Perlman
Full of blatant racism, TBH. But it’s a pretty part of the country geographically speaking. Not as cold as you would think. Only like 2000’ above sea level.
Extremely racist. That area over to Whitefish Montana is the nazi capital of America.
But as far as mountains go you can't really find much more beautiful area.
i have relatives there and have visited. putting aside the neo nazi stuff pointed out by others it is stunningly beautiful!
Neo-Nazis and that guy who killed 4 college students.
It’s beautiful. But lotta nazis
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One of my parents moved there from rural Alabama as a kid and apparently the people there made Alabamans look tolerant and open-minded (at least several decades ago).
Ive driven through there on my way from spokane, washington to Kalispell, montana, its beautful imo small towns tucked away in mountains of evergreens