Public invited to celebrate new amenities at Idler’s Rest

The Palouse Land Trust added a new universal access trail and several other amenities at Idler’s Rest Nature Preserve, and it is inviting the public to celebrate the new additions.

The Idler’s Rest Grand Reopening is 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the nature preserve, 1187 Idler’s Rest Road northeast of Moscow.

“It’s been kind of a long-awaited process of just being able to bring some of these amenities to the community,” Palouse Land Trust Executive Director Lovina Englund said.

Englund said the new trail, which is accessible by people of all abilities, is about 0.6 miles. It includes a new bridge that replaces the old one over Idler’s Rest Creek in the cedar grove.

She said the bridge’s metal support beams came from the University of Idaho Gauss-Johnson Engineering Building and Laboratory and were repurposed for the bridge. The bridge’s wooden decking came from Moscow Mountain.

“The universal access trail is kind of our big focal point of this celebration because it opens up the nature preserve to a whole different segment of our community that was otherwise maybe not able to gain access to the wonderful beauty of the preserve,” Englund said.

The land trust also expanded its parking lot to add more parking spaces, including a universal access parking space, for visitors. A vault toilet was constructed as well.

Moscow High School shop students created new bicycle racks at the upper parking lot of the nature preserve.

For her Eagle Scout project, former Moscow resident Aila Carr-Chellman created 20 directional and navigational signs for Idler’s Rest last year and those signs have been installed on the trail system. A new informational kiosk has also been installed. Englund said the signs and kiosk will help new visitors at Idler’s Rest navigate the trail system.

Englund said the land trust used grant and foundation money as well as private and in-kind donations to complete the improvements.

“There was a lot of generosity that went into making this happen and it was all in the name of being able to open up this cherished space to more members of our community and really speaks to our mission of connecting people to nature,” she said.

Saturday’s event, which is free, will include children’s activities at 9 a.m., a universal access trail ribbon cutting at 9:30 a.m., a reopening celebration at 9:45 a.m., an improvements mini-tour at 10:15 a.m. and a community-guided hike on the entire trail system at 11 a.m.

Englund said she encourages people to carpool or ride bikes to the event because parking is limited. She said it is the first land trust event at Idler’s Rest since 2019 because of COVID-19.

Englund said National Trails Day is Saturday, which is why the land trust selected Saturday for the grand reopening.

“We just want to be able to celebrate with all the people in our community who cared so much to make it happen,” she said.

Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.