Photo of scenic Priest Lake with Selkirk Mountains in the background Priest Lake was originally called Roothaan Lake by Father Desmet in 1846 in honor of his Jesuit Superior in Rome. One of the prominent peaks in the Selkirk Range still bears the name Roothaan. In 1865, Captain John Mullan designated this same lake as Kaniksu Lake on one of his maps. It is believed that "Kaniksu" was the Indian name of Black Robe, although this has never been authenticated. The name was gradually changed in the early 1900's from Kaniksu Lake to its present name of Priest Lake, which refers to the early-day Jesuit missionary priests who had established a base camp at Kalispell Bay in the 1840's. The lake is one of three largest and most beautiful lakes in the Idaho Panhandle, and a very popular recreation attraction. The world's largest Makinaw trout was caught here in 1963. Dolly Varden, Cutthroat, and Kokanee are also caught in the lake. It is now illegal to fish for Dolly Varden and they are to be returned to the lake when caught.
Upper Priest Lake is part of the Upper Priest Lake Scenic Area. There were five small parcels of private land totaling about 420 acres on Upper Priest Lake. The Forest Service purchased these tracts in 1967 with the assistance of Nature Conservancy. The entire shoreline of Upper Priest Lake is now in either the State of Idaho or Federal ownership, and is administered as a scenic area.
Upper Priest River, which flows into Upper Priest Lake, is one of the rivers to be studied for inclusion in the Wild and Scenic Rivers system along with the lower Priest River which was famous in the early days as a log-drive stream. The first recorded drive was in 1901 and the last in 1949. The greatest drive took place in 1931 when 50,000 cedar poles and 125,000,000 board feet or logs were herded down the river by the "river pigs".
Had a family reunion at this campground. Loved every second of this place. Started by playing frisbee golf at their awesome new course. Had our puppy with us and he had an absolute blast.
Cute little store that had all kinds of local art and everything you’ll need for camping. We were blessed with a few amazing thunderstorms that put a damper on fishing, but had a great time watching the storms pass.
We did get some fishing in for cutthroat and lake trout. Cutthroat are catch and release so we had to be pretty careful, but the lake trout tasted amazing.
Amazing camp hosts stopped by regularly and were so nice. Bathrooms were clean and showers were hot. All in all, had a great time at this campground and we plan on going back this next spring.
We walked up to reserve our site. The sites are pretty close but have nice facilities throughout the campground. Including a nice store with an Ice cream shop, a family favorite.