Lookout Pass work under way
LOOKOUT PASS, Idaho – New bike trails are bringing an infusion of summertime visitors to North Idaho’s Silver Valley, but snowy ski slopes remain the king of the region’s growing tourism economy.
Last week, the Lookout Pass Ski Area began a $600,000 project to more than double the size of its lodge, according to Phil Edholm, president of the resort. The expansion comes a year after the small ski area on the Montana-Idaho border doubled the acreage of its ski runs and saw a 105 percent increase in the number of skiers.
Although Lookout Pass has long been a favorite for local families seeking a relatively cheap day on the slopes, the area is shedding its sleepy reputation and making a name for itself across the Northwest, Edholm said. Affordable lift tickets is one reason ($24 for an adult), but the geography also ensures an abundance of early season snow.
“We’re right in there now with many of the other Inland Northwest and Montana ski areas,” he said. “We’re actually seeing more visitors than some.”
The three-story, 6,000-square-foot lodge expansion is expected to open by mid-November, when the first skiers arrive. The building adjoins the existing lodge, much of which was built in 1941. The addition will add extra locker rooms, more dining space and a bigger bar.
An expansion is also under way at Silver Mountain ski area in Kellogg, about 30 miles to the west. A long-term project under way at the ski area calls for 3,000 new units of resort housing and a golf course. The project’s first condominiums went on sale in March, with 68 units sold the first day. Developers say some of the buzz is owed to a December issue of Ski Magazine, which named Silver Mountain one of “3 Best Mountains You’ve Never Skied.”
More skiers are coming to the Silver Valley and so are the summertime cyclists. The 72-mile Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes opened earlier this year and the six-year-old Route of the Hiawatha is seeing booming numbers of riders. Lookout Pass Ski Area manages the 15-mile trail under an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service.
Ridership on the Hiawatha is up 27 percent over the same time last year, Edholm said. Last season, 22,000 riders visited the trail. About 47,000 skiers bought lift tickets at Lookout Pass in 2003.
Mike Dunnigan, the mayor of Mullan, Idaho, said an average of 10 carloads of cyclists each day park at the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes trailhead in Mullan. Some of the tourists seem to be staying longer and buying second homes in the region, he said. Just three years ago there were upward of 360 homes for sale at any given time in the Silver Valley. Now, about 50 are on the market.
“We only have four left in Mullan,” Dunnigan said. “People can see what’s going to happen with the valley.”
Silver Valley residents have been hoping for an economic renaissance since many of the region’s mines closed nearly a generation ago. Running a ski lift or building houses might not pay as well as a day in a gold mine, but people are excited by the growth, said Vern Hanson, president of the Historic Silver Valley Chamber of Commerce and general manager of the Super 8 Motel in Kellogg.
“It’s been a tough 20 years since the mines have shut down and we’ve seen a lot of broken promises, but we’re seeing tangible evidence than something is happening,” Hanson said. “We’ve turned a huge corner.”
The motel is having a record year thanks to the skiing and cycling, Hanson added. Sunday and Monday nights were the first two nights in a month that the 61-room motel was not fully booked.