Tubbs Hill draws hikers, with a history of public preservation

Tubbs Hill is the kind of place that looks simple at first glance and grows more meaningful the longer you stay on it. The 165-acre natural park sits bordered by Lake Coeur d’Alene on the west, south and east sides, with a 2.2-mile interpretive trail wrapping its perimeter and access points that make it feel stitched into downtown Coeur d’Alene rather than set apart from it.

A downtown lakefront preserve, not a remote hike

Tubbs Hill is easy to use in everyday life, which is part of why it matters so much to Kootenai County. The west-side trailhead sits in the southwest corner of McEuen Park, and the east-side trailhead is at the south end of 10th Street. That means you can start a walk from the heart of town, follow the shoreline, and get long lake views without leaving the city grid.

The city also maintains East Tubbs Hill Park, a 2-acre site at 982 East Lakeshore Drive. It offers open space, restrooms, a parking lot trailhead and trail access to the hill, which gives the east side of the preserve a practical entry point for families, swimmers and anyone looking for a shorter visit.

How Tubbs Hill stayed public

The civic story behind the hill is what gives this land its lasting force. Tony Tubbs filed the Tubbs Addition in 1884, and the hillside later became a target for development pressure that could easily have changed the lakefront forever. In 1973, German investors contracted to buy 34 acres on the crown of Tubbs Hill for condominium development, while the Idaho Water Company proposed doubling water rates the same year.

The public turned that pressure into a preservation decision. In 1974, Coeur d’Alene voters approved a bond to buy the water company franchise, which included property on the east side of Tubbs Hill, and Friends of Tubbs Hill says the hill was transferred into public ownership that same year. That sequence matters because it shows how local voting, utility politics and land-use choices shaped what residents can still walk through today.

Why the hill still feels like a community asset

Friends of Tubbs Hill says its mission is to keep the hill in its natural state while still allowing appropriate public use, and to advise the city on park management. The city’s materials connect the area to a Natural Open Space Master Plan, which signals that Tubbs Hill is treated as a managed public landscape, not an informal trail left to chance.

The city also points residents toward an educational video featuring board member and forester Mark Weadick, local naturalist Jack Nisbet and City Urban Forester Nick Goodwin, who discuss the hill’s plants and history. That educational layer matters because Tubbs Hill is not only a place to pass through. It is also a place where Coeur d’Alene teaches its own environmental history in public.

What the trail experience is like

The hill is used year-round for hiking, nature exploration, swimming and other recreation, which makes it one of the most versatile outdoor spaces in the city. A quick loop can fit into a lunch break, while a slower walk can turn into a shoreline ramble with views of the lake from multiple angles. The 2.2-mile interpretive trail gives the route structure, but the hill’s appeal also comes from its flexibility: it can be a workout, a family outing, a swim stop or a quiet overlook.

The layout helps explain why so many people return. You do not need to treat Tubbs Hill like a backcountry destination or make a whole-day plan around it. It functions as a public edge of the city, where the lake and the downtown trail network meet.

Preservation is active work, not a finished victory

The upkeep behind that access is constant. Friends of Tubbs Hill said the trail counter recorded nearly 400,000 visitors in 2024, a volume that helps explain why volunteers and city partners keep returning to the same ground work after year. In 2024, 135-plus Friends of Tubbs Hill volunteers took part in 25 trail-related projects, logging 423 hours of work valued at $12,792.

Restoration is part of that effort as well. Friends of Tubbs Hill has described ongoing removal of non-native trees and planting of native species such as ponderosa pine and western white pine, a reminder that preserving the hill means tending its ecology, not just keeping the paths open. The result is a preserve that keeps changing carefully, with the goal of staying natural while still welcoming the public.

Wildfire risk has become part of the preservation plan

The most recent stewardship work has also focused on fire resilience. The city secured a $240,000 Western States Fuel Mitigation grant for Tubbs Hill fuel reduction work and said it was working with the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management, the Idaho Department of Lands and Kootenai County FireSmart to reduce wildfire risk on the hill.

That work brought temporary trail closures on May 25, 2026 for Phase 2 forest fuel reduction work on the south side of Tubbs Hill. It is a practical example of the tension that defines the site today: residents want the hill open, but keeping it open safely requires maintenance, forestry work and occasional disruption. In a place used so heavily for hiking and swimming, wildfire planning is part of public access, not separate from it.

Tubbs Hill endures because Coeur d’Alene treated a prime lakefront landscape as a public trust instead of a private prize. Every hike, swim and family walk across the hill still rests on that decision, which is why the place feels both everyday and hard-won.