Wallace RV Park in Wallace, Idaho and The Hiawatha Bike Trail

September, 9, 2011.
Okay, here I go again trying to catch up on the blog...


We got an early start and traveled to Wallace Idaho. The first leg of the Journey consisted of mostly two lane roads including pulling the rig through the historic downtown portion of Kalispell, a beautiful town that I wish we had explored. The route was both beautiful and hilly. The portion of interstate 90 from St. Regis was some of the worst in terms of a rough ride that we've traveled.

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After about 180 miles, we arrived in the town of Wallace Idaho and found Wallace RV Park, a small park practically in town but, just on the north side of the elevated interstate. The noise from the interstate wasn't noticeable.

It was warm close to 90 when we arrived. We got set up quickly but didn't run the A/C. The park is in a valley surrounded by tall pine trees. Others told us that we would have full shade by 4:30 and so it was. After setting up, we discovered that our two year old Emerson countertop ice maker refused to do anything but rattle and had bit the dust. I took it apart and determined to the best of my ability that the small compressor was toast as it rattled quite a bit. We will have to find a replacement because we really get a lot of use out of it.
The campground was nice but very tight. We talked to the owner at length who was very friendly. He purchased the park and a building on the south end of the park about a year and a half ago. He really wanted the building and the RV park just happened to come with it. He renovated the 100 plus year old former railroad depot building into a brewery, bar and soon a restaurant. The atmosphere inside now is that of a bar but they allow dogs to actually go inside. Somewhat interesting!

Wallace RV Park Bar with elevated interstate in the background.

The campground like I said is very tight and not very deep. I wouldn't consider it big rig friendly but more like big rig maybe, depending on how crowded they are as maneuvering could be very difficult. We literally had only a couple of extra feet from Paul and Paula's open slide with our awning open. However, each site has a patch of grass and we were backed up to a boisterous little babbling creek. There is no WiFi at the sites but supposedly available inside the bar (we didn't try it). The sites are all only 30 amp with sewer hook-ups. The temps during our stay were just right with lows in the 50's and highs in the mid to upper 80's but only for a couple of hours till we were blanketed in shade from the surrounding hills and forest. Our sites didn't feel the morning sun till about 10:30.

Our tight site next to Paul and Paula backed up to a creek.

We were so close to town that one morning Paul and I walked into Wallace and eventually around several blocks of the historic downtown area in search of a place for breakfast. We found a quaint little diner, Red Light Garage. There's also a small but reasonable grocery store in town. The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, a paved bike trail runs along the south border of the park just under the raised interstate.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Wallace RV Park and would probably return if we came through the area. Our purpose for stopping this time around was to ride The Route Of The Hiawatha Bike Trail.