No items on today’s chore list gave us an opportunity to explore up the road and Kootenai River from Libby towards Canada past an area called Koocanusa. We had no idea how this word is pronounced. I figured it might be koocan-U-suh but I preferred Peggy’s kook-ANUS-eh? which is a Canadian interrogatory. We got here by driving north from Libby on MT-37, a good road with great scenery.
We soon found that Koocanusa isn’t really a thing but rather a group of things with names like Koocanusa Dam which holds back Koocanusa Reservoir, home of the Koocanusa Campground and Marina. We initially drove to the furthest Koocanusa which was the Campground and Marina. This campground is operated by a vendor under license with the Kootenay (sic) National Forest. There are many RV spots right close to the lake and they seemed to have full hookups. There is a store. During our pass through the campground we noted that quite a few of the families out camping must spend a prolonged time here since they had big piles of firewood, many boats, Rhinos, soft-sided gazebos, elaborate barbecue apparatus and some even had decks and little screen fences. There is a boat ramp and a marina so you can leave your yacht in Koocanusa Reservoir overnight. Once we finished our recon at this place, we got on MT-37 headed back south.
The reservoir is held back by Koocanusa Dam, a spartan but sturdy-looking structure that probably stands 400′ above the lower Kootenai River. We stopped by the visitor center and I sat down to watch some old films about the dam construction where I learned that Koocanusa is a made up word with elements representing the Kootenay River, Canada and the USA, hence, KooCanUSA. The dam and reservoir are part of the greater Columbia River hydroelectric system which I think is about the same as the Bonneville Power Administration. Lots of ospreys here.
We resumed our trip back toward home when we decided to take a side trip up a road that goes to a place called Yaak (no kidding). Although the road is very nice with abundant emerald second growth forests along the side, there was not much else for us to see today. There are a few residences out here but most look like summertime places. Nice summertime places.
We continued toward Yaak on this road (Pipe Creek Road) until we got to the part where in turns into a skinny national park road where we turned around and headed back towards Pipe Creek. We spotted some wild turkeys out here but the brush is pretty thick along the road so we did not get any glimpses of big game other than one deer who tried to commit suicide by smashing into our truck grille. Peggy was quick on the brakes and the fortunate dearie got away unscathed.
We got a few animal pix, some dam pix and pictures of some Americana in downtown Libby which you can see by clicking here