Blue Diamond Marina & Resort

Overview

Blue Diamond Marina & Resort sits on the west shore of Cavanaugh Bay on Priest Lake, roughly four to five miles north of the small community of Coolin, Idaho. The property is best understood as a marina-first operation that has grown lodging and dining around its central asset: deep-water boat moorage. Blue Diamond markets itself as having the deepest water marina on Priest Lake, a claim that matters specifically to owners of larger boats, which often can't be safely moored in the shallower marinas common elsewhere on the lake.

Around that marina, the resort has built lakeside lodging and an on-site restaurant and wine bar, and it operates year-round rather than shutting down for the off-season, a posture that positions it as a genuine winter destination and not merely a summer boating stop. Its location near the Rocky Point trailhead also connects it directly into Priest Lake's winter recreation infrastructure, a role few of the lake's other resorts fill as directly.

Winter at Priest Lake

Blue Diamond's winter operation is more developed than a typical summer-oriented lake resort, largely because of its position at the Rocky Point Trail System trailhead, roughly 4.3 miles of trail that ties into Priest Lake's broader groomed snowmobile network — a system that runs to roughly 400 miles across the region, one of the more extensive groomed-trail networks in the Idaho Panhandle. The resort also participates in the North Idaho Park N' Ski program, which maintains groomed cross-country ski trails through cooperative arrangements between local resorts and public land managers.

On winter weekends, the resort's Waterfront building doubles as a warming hut, offering guests and passing snowmobilers hot beverages and restroom access — a function that goes beyond simple lodging and positions Blue Diamond as an actual piece of the winter trail infrastructure rather than just a place to sleep afterward. Ice fishing on Priest Lake and snowshoeing round out the winter activity list, and the surrounding forest supports hunting and, later in the season, mushroom gathering. Taken together, this makes Blue Diamond one of the more clearly winter-capable resorts on the lake.

Summer on the Lake

Summer at Blue Diamond centers on the marina and the water it accesses: watersports of various kinds, and fishing for trophy Mackinaw, or lake trout, a species for which Priest Lake has built a strong regional reputation over decades. Hiking and biking trails in the surrounding terrain give land-based visitors options beyond the water, and the area's scenery — forested slopes dropping to the lake — draws photographers as well as anglers and boaters.

Golf is available nearby, though not on-site, and July and August bring the region's wild huckleberry season, when picking becomes a popular activity across Priest Lake. River running is also listed among the resort's summer activities, giving paddlers another way to engage with the surrounding watershed beyond the main lake itself. As with winter, the marina underpins the summer offering: the deep-water slips and modern boat-rental fleet make Blue Diamond a practical base for boaters who might not fit at shallower marinas elsewhere on Priest Lake.

Where to Stay

Blue Diamond offers lakeside lodging marketed as available on a year-round basis, situated near the Rocky Point trailhead on Cavanaugh Bay's west shore. The resort does not publish detailed unit counts or room types as clearly as some of its neighbors on Priest Lake, so travelers should treat the lodging as a general lakeside-stay offering rather than expect a specific mix of cabins, condos, or hotel-style rooms without confirming directly.

What is clear is the emphasis on proximity: to the marina, to the trailhead, and to the lake itself, which fits the resort's overall identity as a boating- and trail-access-oriented property rather than a large-scale resort complex built around extensive on-site recreation amenities like golf courses or expansive event centers.

Dining

The Waterfront Restaurant & Wine Bar serves Blue Diamond's dining program, offering Northwest and Italian family-style cuisine alongside a wine and craft beer selection. The same building that houses the restaurant in the warmer months converts, on winter weekends, into a warming hut for trail users, giving the space a dual identity that shifts with the season — fine-dining and wine-focused in summer, functional and welcoming to cold snowmobilers and skiers in winter.

That dual role is somewhat unusual among Priest Lake dining establishments, most of which operate on a single seasonal mode, and it reflects the resort's broader strategy of staying genuinely useful to visitors across both halves of the year rather than concentrating entirely on the summer boating season.

Getting There & When to Go

Blue Diamond Marina & Resort sits on Cavanaugh Bay's west shore, about four to five miles north of Coolin, Idaho, placing it within the same general Priest Lake region as the lake's other resorts and roughly two hours from Spokane, Washington, the nearest major metropolitan area. Because the resort operates year-round, the right time to visit depends on the traveler's priorities: boaters and anglers will find the marina and Mackinaw trout fishing at their best in summer, particularly July and August, which also brings huckleberry season.

Winter travelers — snowmobilers, cross-country skiers, and snowshoers — will find the resort especially useful given its direct trailhead access and its function as a Park N' Ski system stop and weekend warming hut. Shoulder-season visitors should confirm which services, particularly restaurant hours, remain active, since the Waterfront's role shifts between full restaurant service and a more limited warming-hut function depending on the season and day of the week.

From Logging Camp to Lakeside Marina

The building at the core of Blue Diamond Marina & Resort dates to the early 1900s, when it served an entirely different purpose: a logging and truck-repair facility supporting the timber operations that were central to the Priest Lake region's early economy. The property was converted into a marina in the 1960s, a transition that mirrored a broader shift around the lake as logging-era infrastructure gave way to tourism and recreation as the region's economic base. The current buildings underwent a full restoration and renovation in the mid-1990s, updating the marina and lodging into the form guests encounter today.

The resort has operated under family ownership for decades, with Carolyn Deshler cited as having run the property since 1990, spanning the mid-1990s renovation and the resort's subsequent development into a year-round operation. That trajectory — from logging support facility, to marina, to a restored marina-and-restaurant destination with genuine winter infrastructure — makes Blue Diamond a relatively rare example on Priest Lake of industrial-era reuse rather than resort construction from scratch, and it underscores how thoroughly the lake's economy shifted from timber extraction to recreation and tourism over the twentieth century.

Frequently Asked Questions