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Hi Idahoanss,
First time posting on Idaho city-data. Our family is looking to relocate and Idaho has been suggested as a state to consider. We've posted on the Wyoming forum and have some suggested towns. We're hoping for some help from folks here regarding Idaho. Specifically, northern Idaho has been recommended.
BACKGROUND:
-We're a conservative-Christian (evangelical...Have always belonged to Baptist churches but not opposed to a good Bible teaching church) preparedness and freedom-minded family with 5 kid ages upper high school to toddler living in Ohio.
- Wife has excellent word processing and secretarial job skills currently supervising word processions department of a nice law firm. She's got lots of talents especially when it comes to being crafty and creative…she's beautiful inside and out…OK back to the background.
-I'm an elementary PE teacher of 10 years and also have social studies certificate which I taught middle school for 10 years. Received "Teacher of the Year Award" for the district, the first/only PE teacher to receive, a few years ago. (Not bragging but saying I have a good job and reputation which I've worked hard to build which makes it hard to leave for just any job.)
Teaching job would be great of course but realize they're hard to come by but I'm open to other options and feel I've been blessed with a variety of skills but do have a large family to support. A job, a decent job, is the first hinge-pin.
- I also have significant experience in archery instruction with various certifications and supplement income by hosting and teaching youth archery classes through the year as well as hosting camps for 3 weeks each summer. I've trained a handful of state champions and enjoy teaching archery quite a bit.
-We like the outdoors especially fishing, hunting, biking, camping, etc. Some of us took a big camping trip through South Dakota and Wyoming last summer and loved it. We wanted to get to Montana and Idaho but wore the little ones out too much and had to turn and head for home.
QUESTION:
Any insights into certain Idaho towns that seem to be a good fit? Feel drawn to northern Idaho but open to suggestions. Some have suggested Clark ForkSsandpoint, Bonners Ferry, Salmon, Challis, Montpelier? Any suggestions or perhaps even towns you'd stay away from based on our situation.
Look all the old posts over in the forum. it will help you narrow your thoughts down.
Montpelier is about 750 miles south of Bonner's Ferry; Idaho is a pretty large state. That's very deceptive for those who haven't been here, but it does make a lot of difference when a person is serious about moving here.
You might want to add Priest River to your list. This is the area where I live and I love it here, moved in 3/2016, almost a year here now......I am about 20 miles out of town with great neighbors on the properties around me and we border national forest..
The nice thing about this area is that you are kind of are centrally located to SandPoint, Sagle, Clark Fork, Coeur d'Alene and Newport Wa. And Spokane is an easy hour away.....great drive and have never been in any kind of traffic. I use Spokane for my doctor, BIG shopping like when I go to Winco and it has everything to keep my wife happy (Target, Macy's, Ross and so on, ya know, the girly stores).
You've got Priest River and tributaries, Priest Lake, Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille river right in your back yard.
As others say, you sure need to visit the areas of interest to you and ideally you should have employment set up ahead of time or have the finances to carry you for an extended time until you do get a job.
In my case I only came up in the dead of winter, that's the only season that I needed to see. The other seasons were perfect sight unseen and I knew summers were cooler than where I came from (summers are perfect, not to hot, not to cool). One thing to be aware of in north Idaho is that you have a few months for the most, no sun....you'll get a few days here and there are sometimes almost a week.
Based on your outdoor recreational interests I'd guess you might be happy most anywhere in Idaho, and for sure you'd be happy anywhere in north Idaho. If you like mountains, lots of green forests and deep blue lakes it's pretty much an outdoor recreational paradise. Other parts of the state offer similar attractions though.
Clark Fork and Bonners Ferry are very nice places, but both are very small towns. Sandpoint is also a nice town, but not much bigger (Pop. about 7k). Finding work in these areas can be challenging, but of course there are schools and teachers in all of them. Mainly just a matter of whether there is an opening that's suited to your background.
Coeur d'Alene is a bit larger, which may be good or bad depending on what you're looking for. However, there are going to be more job opportunities there as a result of it being somewhat larger city.
As Mike suggests it would be helpful to investigate the different areas of the state and narrow down your focus. How large a town do you want to live in? What sort of "city amenities" are important to you - shopping, dining, museums, and other cultural attractions? How important are the quality of the schools for your kids, and what areas of the state offer what you need in that respect.
I'd guess your choice may end up being heavily influenced by where you can find work. I have no doubt you will find more employment opportunities in the larger metropolitan areas in and around places such as Boise and Idaho Falls vs. some of the smaller towns on your list.
You might want to add Priest River to your list. This is the area where I live and I love it here, moved in 3/2016, almost a year here now......I am about 20 miles out of town with great neighbors on the properties around me and we border national forest..
The nice thing about this area is that you are kind of are centrally located to SandPoint, Sagle, Clark Fork, Coeur d'Alene and Newport Wa. And Spokane is an easy hour away.....great drive and have never been in any kind of traffic. I use Spokane for my doctor, BIG shopping like when I go to Winco and it has everything to keep my wife happy (Target, Macy's, Ross and so on, ya know, the girly stores).
You've got Priest River and tributaries, Priest Lake, Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille river right in your back yard.
As others say, you sure need to visit the areas of interest to you and ideally you should have employment set up ahead of time or have the finances to carry you for an extended time until you do get a job.
In my case I only came up in the dead of winter, that's the only season that I needed to see. The other seasons were perfect sight unseen and I knew summers were cooler than where I came from (summers are perfect, not to hot, not to cool). One thing to be aware of in north Idaho is that you have a few months for the most, no sun....you'll get a few days here and there are sometimes almost a week.
Good luck with your search.....
Thanks for the warm welcome and the insight, Sierra Don . Priest river is added to the list. It really sounds like there would be lots of areas and/or towns in northern Idaho that would be suitable, assuming a job is attained. I'm assuming that there are nuances like any area in any state for the most part but sounds like there are options to explore.
It seems that with there being a relatively high quantity of small towns then we would want to maybe rent first then scope out the area. Being currently so far in Ohio, unless I was able to come spend substantial time in the summer somehow, working summer job of some sort while on summer break, then i think it'd be hard to commit to an area and home at first.
You mentioned more gray winters which we're accustomed to here in Ohio, but what about about humidity, out of curiosity, in the summer? Ours are pretty humid in Ohio and I assume yours are as well?
What about school districts up there? Any that are substantially better or worse than others?
Last edited by letsgobucks!; 02-19-2017 at 08:02 PM..
Reason: Typo
Based on your outdoor recreational interests I'd guess you might be happy most anywhere in Idaho, and for sure you'd be happy anywhere in north Idaho. If you like mountains, lots of green forests and deep blue lakes it's pretty much an outdoor recreational paradise. Other parts of the state offer similar attractions though.
Clark Fork and Bonners Ferry are very nice places, but both are very small towns. Sandpoint is also a nice town, but not much bigger (Pop. about 7k). Finding work in these areas can be challenging, but of course there are schools and teachers in all of them. Mainly just a matter of whether there is an opening that's suited to your background.
Coeur d'Alene is a bit larger, which may be good or bad depending on what you're looking for. However, there are going to be more job opportunities there as a result of it being somewhat larger city.
As Mike suggests it would be helpful to investigate the different areas of the state and narrow down your focus. How large a town do you want to live in? What sort of "city amenities" are important to you - shopping, dining, museums, and other cultural attractions? How important are the quality of the schools for your kids, and what areas of the state offer what you need in that respect.
I'd guess your choice may end up being heavily influenced by where you can find work. I have no doubt you will find more employment opportunities in the larger metropolitan areas in and around places such as Boise and Idaho Falls vs. some of the smaller towns on your list.
Dave
Dave, thanks for the thoughts and for the question about amenities. That's something we need to think about.
We're definitely interested in quality public schools or the possibility of a good private Christian school option. Having said that, were pretty adaptable and make things work. We've done a combination of public, private, homeschool, and online charter schooling with our children based on our situation(s) and/or the needs of our children.
Other amenities...being from a city our whole lives, albeit we're weary of it, I don't know that we'd know what we'd miss. We're within 20 minutes of Costco, Target, Walmart, Cabelas, and virtually any chain store and restaurant you can think of (maybe within 20 minutes of two of many of these) and it's hard to say. We spend the bulk of our time at home, school, church, older kids at friends house or hammockikg somewhere, the grocery store (a lot with 5 kids) and the occasional shopping trip for fun or to pickup something for sports, school, or a hobby.
We don't spend money on entertainment in terms of movies, video games, going out to eat. We just don't have the money. So much of our income goes to our routine bills and private school education for the older two who attend a Christian high school.
I grew up in NJ, and spent a lot of time in Iowa during my working days since my company's HQ were in Cedar Rapids, and I can assure you that the typical summer weather is no where near as humid as what you find in Ohio. It can be a little more humid than what we were used to in SoCal, but still quite mild in comparison to the mid-west or the east coast.
An interesting exercise for you would be to spend some time on the web looking at locations of stores such as Costco or Target (or whatever chains you think you will continue to frequent). There aren't that many locations compared to what you may be used to in Ohio. From any of the north Idaho towns you mentioned you would be further than 20 minutes to any of those stores, since the nearest you'll find them is in Coeur d'Alene. We live in Sagle, SE of Sandpoint, and Costco/Target are roughly an hour drive for us. It can be closer, perhaps 30-40 minutes from downtown Sandpoint, but more than 20 minutes for sure. We make roughly monthly trips to Coeur d'Alene for shopping, and that's generally something that takes at least a 1/2 day depending on how many errands we have to run down there.
Distances in the American West can be somewhat different to what you are used to in the mid-west. There are lots of big open spaces with not much in them. That may be OK for you, it may even be a good thing, but you should go into this decision with your eyes wide open.
You mentioned more gray winters which we're accustomed to here in Ohio, but what about about humidity, out of curiosity, in the summer? Ours are pretty humid in Ohio and I assume yours are as well?
What about school districts up there? Any that are substantially better or worse than others?
To me there really is no humidity......my gauge usually shows somewhere around 30 to 40% or just above in the summer. Where I used to live in the Ca. sierra's at 4000' there basically was no humidity, never any dew on the foliage or anywhere, only time there was any moisture was rain, fog or snow.
Here at my place summer, spring and fall everything is always wet in the AM from dew, have ground fog in the AM and PM but have a number of marshy areas in the area, by 10 am or so everything is all dried up. You won't be sweating to death in the summer when your just sitting around doing nothing. Last summer we only had about 5 days where it was at 95 or so, usually between 75 to 85 degrees. Mornings and evenings are usually cool enough for a lite jacket or fleece, gets down to the high 50's, low 60's at night, I am at at about 2500 feet in elevation.
As far as school districts go I am not knowledgeable in that area, retired and enjoying the good life here in north Idaho but you will probably get responses from other forum members on that subject. You can also find that kind of info from past posts using the search feature.
One of the things to be aware of is that if you are not living in a town directly you will most likely be on satellite for your internet though there are a few companies that offer microwave internet but that is very specific based on line of sight to their towers.
Last edited by sierra don; 02-20-2017 at 08:28 AM..
Reason: add additional text......
Ok interesting about the satellite internet service. Is it more expensive and does it work as well?
Hopefully will hear from others about school districts in northern Idahonfor public and private. For that matter, we're interested in school districts for the kids but also for me as a teacher. I assume the better the public school districts for the kids would be the higher paying for teachers too?
And Dave thanks for the thoughts on distances to amenities and humidity.
Last edited by letsgobucks!; 02-20-2017 at 06:17 PM..
Reason: Added text at end.
Hi Letsgobucks! Glad to see you've come "to the source" for North Idaho info! You've already got a lot of valuable feedback here. I just wanted to clarify that the Clark Fork suggestion over at the WY forum didn't come from me, because I think CF may be too small for your needs, but I would absolutely suggest you come for a visit and see for yourself if in any way possible. CF has a great high school for its small size, and several churches.
I remember our member Misty River who posts occasionally these days was not impressed with the Priest River school district--you can probably find her posts by doing a forum search. Friends of ours have had their kids in a Sandpoint Christian school--don't know which one--and that seems to have worked out.
I would still think the small towns of Dalton Gardens and Hayden north of Coeur d'Alene might be a good match for you.
When we're in Clark Fork (summers only, for now, until retirement) we usually plan on a Coeur d'Alene trip at least once every 3 weeks or so, and go to Cabela's (Post Falls) and Costco. You've got a Walmart and a Home Depot in Ponderay which is really "Sandpoint North." We've also found that the ultimate cheapest, secure way to ship bulky items from home (SoCal) that will fit in a big box or a plastic bin is through the Greyhound package service, and the closest drop-off point is in CdA. Just in case you're planning on moving in stages.
About humidity in the Rockies: whenever we come up during the summer we have 2-3 days of gentle nose bleed just because it's so dry compared to the SoCal coastal region! So I wouldn't worry about summer humidity if I were you. A couple of thunderstorms combined with high temps may bring higher humidity, but it doesn't last long.
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