Discover Stevens County through a variety of outdoor experiences and historical explorations. Groomed cross-country ski trails, summer trails and a boat launch sit alongside forest landscapes and places that tell the story of the history around Kettle Falls and Colville. If you’d like to organize your trip around your interests, you can consider nature, activity and culture as distinct themes.
Winter Trails, Summer Trails and a Scenic Pass Highway
The 49 Degrees North Nordic Center has groomed trails for classic cross-country skiing and skate skiing. There are also snowshoe trails, fat-bike access, rentals and lessons. The trails for the two types of cross-country skiing offer a clear choice; snowshoes and fat bikes represent other ways to enjoy the winter trails. Another option is Sand Canyon Sno-Park, with 67 miles of snowmobile trails. Cross-country ski and snowmobile trails therefore differ both in how you get around and in the routes available.
For summer, 49 North offers mountain biking on the service roads in the West, Central and East Basins. For hiking, you can use the Nordic trail system, service roads and ski runs. The service roads are part of both activities; hiking also includes two other named types of terrain. This makes it possible to distinguish the summer options by activity and route.
The Sherman Pass Scenic Byway offers another perspective on the landscape. It crosses 5,575-foot Sherman Pass and passes through Colville National Forest toward Kettle Falls and Lake Roosevelt. The byway follows State Route 20 between Republic and Kettle Falls. This puts a named mountain pass and a route through the national forest at the heart of the experience—a different kind of trip from the ski trails or hiking paths.
Forest, Water and Wildlife
Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge combines mountainous conifer forest with several forest zones, lakes, wetlands and more than 80 miles of streams. Elevations range from 1,800 to 5,600 feet. The refuge provides habitat for bears, cougars, deer, elk and moose, as well as more than 200 bird species. For nature enthusiasts, both the diversity of the landscape and its role as a habitat are points of interest.
The Kettle Falls Trail offers a specific opportunity for birdwatching: it runs 0.75 miles to the Colville River. There is also a boat launch on the water in the Kettle Falls area of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. The two options have different focuses—a short trail with an opportunity for birdwatching and a boat access point.
Stories of Kettle Falls and Colville
St. Paul's Mission is part of the 0.25-mile Mission Point Trail. Interpretive signs along the trail explain 9,000 years of Kettle Falls history. The mission is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and recalls the Catholic presence in the Kettle Falls area, as well as the history of the Indigenous people whom the priests served. The trail, interpretive signs and mission thus connect a short route with a long historical period.
Kettle Falls Historical Center is also in Kettle Falls, on the historic Columbia River. A different story begins in Colville: the city’s first public schoolhouse was built in 1874 and later moved to Keller Heritage Park. Both the date and the building’s relocation are part of its history.
Keller House and Carriage House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Keller Heritage Center of the Stevens County Historical Society is a seven-acre park with a group of historic buildings and a fire lookout tower. The region’s history is represented by both individual listed buildings and a park with several historic structures and a distinctive tower.
The Northeast Washington Fair promotes agricultural awareness and education through hands-on experiences, exhibits and demonstrations. This adds a different subject to the historic sites: agriculture is presented there as an area for learning and experience.
Discover more destinations: Kettle Falls, Valley, Northport, Loon Lake, Skamania, Clallam County, Kitsap, Okanogan.
For the broader travel overview: Washington.
