Idaho 2025

After leaving historic Virginia City, Montana, we continued our western states swing by heading towards our next destination, Spirit Lake, Idaho. Since it was quite far to Spirit Lake, a good six-hour drive, we decided to take our time and break the trip up into two days. Our first detour was to stop in Nevada City just a mile or two outside of Virginia City. Nevada City (population 0?) is a ghost town of about ninety restored buildings and a small gauge train that goes back and forth with Virginia City. Nevada City is a cool place to visit, especially on weekends when they have folks dressed in 1870’s period costumes and the town becomes an outdoor living history historical museum. Fun fact: Nevada City is also home to North America’s largest collection of automated music machines which can be found in the Nevada City Music Hall.

After leaving Nevada City, we headed for our overnight accommodations in Missoula, Montana. Missoula is a college town with lots of hotels/motels, casinos, liquor stores, and tattoo parlors. Upon arrival at our motel, the Brooks Street Motor Inn, we asked John the desk clerk for a recommendation on a good place for beverages and grub. He pointed us to the Claim Jumper Casino, Restaurant, & Lounge just down the street. We took him up on the tip and we were very happy that we did. The bar tenders, Yolanda and Tila, were attentive to us and very efficient in handling the big busy dinner-time crowd. Moreover, all our bar mates were friendly, the beer was cold, and the food was good. Big thanks to John for his advice!

We left Missoula in the morning and stopped for lunch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The drive was again scenic and the weather was pleasantly cool. After lunch we headed north to Spirit Lake, a short 60 miles from the Canadian border, to find Idaho’s oldest bar, the White Horse Inn and Saloon. Unfortunately, like the Bale and Hay Saloon in Montana, the White Horse is temporarily closed as it goes through a change in ownership. So, we stopped for pictures outside the White Horse to document our visit and then went next door to the Linger Longer Lounge (what a great name!) to drown our sorrows. Well, our disappointment was short lived as we were greeted by the delightful Kari behind the bar. She was a breath of fresh air and very ably took care of us and the building bar crowd. While there we also had the pleasure of meeting a couple of locals, Dan and Mikey. They were awesome to talk to, as was the case for almost everyone we encountered on our trip through Utah, Montana, and Idaho. After saying adieu to Kari, Dan, and Mikey, we headed 50 feet up the street to Jo’s Hole for one more before heading to our hotel. Jo’s Hole was another great classic bar. I didn’t catch our bartender’s name, but he was a fun guy with amazing stories. This stop in Spirit Lake concluded our visits to the oldest bars in Utah, Montana, and Idaho, but we still have a little more stuff to tell you about in our next article. Once again, thankful for traveling mercies.