Blue Creek Bay Recreation Site and Trail

An accessible small craft boat launch provides boater and non-motorized craft access to Blue Creek Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene. The trailhead parking area offers access to nearly 5 miles of trails. The BLM acquired this area from the Jack Forest family, descendants of Wallace Forest, in order to provide public access to the lake and to preserve the area's recreational and historical values. The upland forested area consists of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, grand fir, western larch, western white pine, western redcedar and western hemlock and is home to a variety of wildlife. A large wetland/riparian and wet meadow area extends along the head of Blue Creek Bay filled with black cottonwood, thin-leaf alder, red-osier dogwood, cattails, reed canarygrass, sedges, rushes and bulrushes. A portion of the historic Mullan Road, the first constructed overland wagon route through the Northern Rockies, crosses through the uplands. Completed by hand in 1862, the road connected points east of the Continental Divide to Fort Walla Walla, Washington.