Settlers Grove of Ancient Cedars
Eagle Creek Road (Forest Road 805)
Murray, ID
A short, shaded walk into a grove of giant redcedars that the loggers passed over, some of them standing here for many hundreds of years.
Settlers Grove of Ancient Cedars is a rare pocket of old-growth forest tucked into the mountains at the far northern edge of Idaho's Silver Valley. Most of the great redcedar forests of the northern Rockies were logged off more than a century ago, or burned in the enormous fires of that era, so a stand of giants like this one is an unusual thing to find still standing. Some of the western redcedars here measure several feet across and are estimated to be many hundreds of years old.
The grove survived partly by luck and partly by neglect. Early loggers prized pine and larch and often left the cedar, which they considered low-value and hard to move, especially in tucked-away drainages like this one. The Forest Service set the grove aside as a protected botanical area, and today a short, well-marked trail lets anyone walk among the old trees for free, with only the drive up the gravel road to earn it.
What Guests Love
- Standing among enormous old redcedars, some measuring several feet across, in a forest that feels far older than the towns nearby
- A gentle loop trail with interpretive signs and wooden footbridges over the clear water of Eagle Creek
- The deep, cool quiet of an old-growth grove, mossy and green even in high summer
- The sense of a rare survivor, a patch of ancient forest that logging and fire both spared
Worth Knowing
- The main loop is short and mostly easy, roughly a mile and a half through the grove, though roots and a few wet spots mean sturdy shoes are a good idea
- It is reached at the end by gravel Forest Service roads north of Murray, best driven in dry weather; the road is not maintained in winter
- There are no services at the grove or in the tiny old settlements nearby, so fill up on fuel, water, and food before you head up
- The grove is a protected botanical area, so stay on the trail and leave the trees, moss, and downed wood as you find them
Details
Murray, ID
Learn about Settlers Grove of Ancient Cedars
How the grove survived
By the early 1900s the forests of northern Idaho were being cut hard for the mines and mills of the Silver Valley and for timber shipped out on the railroads. Loggers went first for the tall, straight, valuable species, and western redcedar was often left standing, seen as too heavy, too soft, or too awkward to be worth the trouble, especially back in hard-to-reach creek bottoms. In pockets like the head of Eagle Creek, the cedars were simply skipped over.
That neglect, along with a bit of luck in dodging the great fires that swept the region, let this grove grow on undisturbed while the forests around it were cut and burned and regrew young. The Forest Service later recognized what had been spared and set the grove aside as a botanical area in 1970, so the trees would keep standing. It is one of the few places in this heavily logged corner of the country where you can walk beneath cedars that were already old when the miners arrived.
Walking among the cedars
A short interpretive loop, Trail 162, winds through the heart of the grove, crossing the West Fork of Eagle Creek on wooden footbridges as it goes. The walk is gentle and shaded, and it is the kind of place that quiets people down. The biggest cedars rise straight up out of a floor of ferns and moss, their trunks fluted and shaggy-barked, and the light comes down soft and green through the high canopy even on a bright day.
Interpretive signs along the way explain the trees, the forest, and how the grove came to be spared. Give yourself an unhurried hour to walk the loop, stop under the largest trees, and listen to the creek. It is a small destination, not a full day, but the drive out and the walk in add up to a genuine escape into deep, old forest, the sort that most of the northern Rockies lost long ago.
Getting there through gold country
The way to the grove runs north from Wallace and the Silver Valley up the Coeur d'Alene River, past Prichard and the tiny, half-forgotten gold camp of Murray, then up gravel Forest Service roads along Eagle Creek to the trailhead. The final miles are unpaved and can be rough or dusty, so a dry day and an unhurried pace serve best, and the road is not kept up once the snow comes.
The route itself is part of the appeal, threading old mining country that boomed and faded long ago, now quiet forest and a scatter of small settlements. There are no services up here, so top off fuel and pack water and a lunch before you leave the valley. Reach the trailhead, walk the loop among the ancient trees, and you will have found one of the quietest and oldest corners of the Idaho Panhandle.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Murray
Murray
About 10 miles
A tiny, near-ghost gold camp from the 1880s rush, the last small settlement on the way up to the grove.
Historic Wallace
About 35 miles
The intact old silver-mining town in the valley, whose entire downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the base for the Silver Valley.
Pulaski Tunnel Trail
About 36 miles
A free Forest Service hike near Wallace to the mine where a ranger saved his crew from the great 1910 fire.
Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes
About 35 miles
A free, flat, paved public rail-trail across the Panhandle that passes through Wallace along the old rail bed.