Solomon Lake Campground, North Idaho

Solomon lake is hidden away in between the mountains north of Bonners Ferry Idaho. Now, it has a nice campground area, which you will see in the accompanying video. However, back in the early 1950's; it had none of that. The road leading to Solomon Lake back then was little more than a trail, and parts of it could be so muddy, we had to drive the old Buick clear off of the road and through the brush to get to the lake, especially early in the summer before things had dried out. Not only that, but there were all sorts of interconnecting Forest Service roads on the way to Solomon Lake, and there were absolutely NO markers to tell you which was the right road to take at an intersection.

One fine Saturday morning, we were headed up to Solomon Lake for a weekend of camping and fishing. Our Buick was loaded down with camping equipment, food, picnic plates, and the cast iron skillet that mom always used to cook over the campfire. Behind us, was Grandpa Bailey in his 1950 Ford with the old wooden boat on top, and behind him was his daughter and son-in-law, Adeline and Jim King, and their family, driving their snazzy little Nash. Somehow, we missed a turn, and since it was impossible to stop or turn around, we just kept driving and finally ended up on top of one of the mountains surrounding Solomon Lake. At the top, we were able to turn around and head back down again, although it was fast getting towards dark.

In the dark; it was even harder to find the right turns, and we missed the turnoff for the lake yet again. A couple of hours later (traveling at about 5 mph the whole time) we reached the top again, this time at Solomon Lookout, on the top of Solomon Mountain. Since it was so late, and no one wanted to chance missing the turn-off for the third time; we made a hasty camp that night at the lookout-----with no water source, naturally. The next morning, we woke early to discover a big black bear investigating our camp; so we quickly decided to forgo any kind of breakfast and headed back down the mountain. I guess the third time was the charm because this time, we happily ended up at the lake, and enjoyed the rest of the weekend camping there.

The lake is actually longer than it looks in this video because it is kind of like an hourglass shape; so it seems to end, goes through the narrow part, and then widens out into the second part of the lake .