Elkins Resort

Overview

Elkins Resort on Priest Lake occupies the sandy northwest shore of the lake near Nordman, Idaho, deep in the Selkirk Mountains and roughly two hours by car from Spokane International Airport. It is built almost entirely from cedar logs, an aesthetic and structural choice that sets it apart from more conventional resort architecture elsewhere on the lake, and it functions as a self-contained destination: a historic lodge, roughly 30 to 32 individual cabins, a full-service marina, an on-site restaurant and bar, and a retail store.

The setting reads as secluded and wilderness-oriented rather than developed — a quality the resort actively markets — and it has also become a wedding venue, including winter weddings in recent years. What distinguishes Elkins most, though, is longevity: it is the oldest continuously operating family resort on Priest Lake, tracing back nearly a century, and that history is embedded in the property itself, since many of the original cedar cabins still stand and still host guests.

Winter at Priest Lake

Elkins follows a defined seasonal rhythm rather than staying open continuously through the calendar year: it typically closes at the end of October, reopens before Thanksgiving to catch the start of the winter season, and then closes again from roughly mid-March to mid-April for maintenance before the summer season begins. Within that winter window, the resort serves as a base for snowmobiling and cross-country skiing, activities that draw heavily on Priest Lake's extensive network of groomed trails — one of the more substantial groomed-trail systems in the Idaho Panhandle.

The cedar cabins, many fitted with granite fireplaces, suit the cold-weather stay particularly well, giving guests a warm retreat after a day on snowmobiles or skis. Winter weddings have become a notable addition to the resort's offerings in recent years, taking advantage of the lodge's rustic character and the surrounding snow-covered Selkirk scenery. The Thanksgiving-to-mid-March window represents the resort's full winter operating season.

Summer on the Lake

In summer, Elkins' sandy northwest-shore location supports swimming directly off the beach, along with boating and general watersports launched from the resort's full-service marina, which rents boats through an online booking system in addition to offering docks and moorage for guest and transient boats. Fishing is a significant draw, both on the open lake and in nearby creeks, with anglers targeting Mackinaw, or lake trout, and kokanee, species for which Priest Lake has a strong regional reputation.

The surrounding Selkirk Mountains offer hiking and general forest exploration directly from the property, and July and August bring huckleberry season, when wild huckleberries ripen throughout the region and picking becomes a popular activity for guests and locals alike. The resort's isolated, forested setting makes it well suited to travelers seeking a quieter, more wilderness-adjacent alternative to larger, more amenity-dense resorts elsewhere on the lake — the appeal here rests less on golf courses or expansive event facilities and more on the cedar-log architecture, the marina, and direct lake and creek access.

Where to Stay

Guest lodging at Elkins consists of somewhere between 30 and 32 cedar log cabins — published counts vary slightly — plus guest rooms in the original lodge building. No two cabins are quite alike: the resort's cabin stock ranges from simpler creek-side frame structures to substantial cedar log cabins, and many feature granite fireplaces alongside modern conveniences like HD televisions.

That variation traces to a policy the resort maintained in the 1960s, when guests were allowed to personalize the cabins they stayed in over repeat visits, resulting in a collection of structures that developed individually rather than to a single uniform design. Some cabins carry specific histories tied to the resort's early construction, including one that originally served as the cookhouse for the workers who built the resort and another that once housed a small hydroelectric plant powered by a nearby creek. For guests, this means choosing a cabin at Elkins is also choosing among small pieces of the resort's own history, rather than picking a unit from an interchangeable inventory.

Dining

The resort's restaurant seats roughly 200 guests and includes a wood-fired pizza oven, giving the dining program a rustic, hearth-cooked character that matches the cedar-log setting. The adjoining Trapper Creek Bar handles drinks and a more casual gathering space, while a retail and gift store rounds out the resort's on-site commercial offerings.

Elkins has also incorporated sustainability measures into its operations, including linen reuse programs and efficient lighting, practices increasingly common among lakeside resorts seeking to reduce their environmental footprint in a sensitive mountain-lake watershed. Given the resort's seasonal closures — shut down from late October through the pre-Thanksgiving reopening, and again from mid-March to mid-April — dining service follows the same operating calendar as lodging, meaning the restaurant and bar are unavailable during those maintenance windows.

Getting There & When to Go

Elkins Resort sits at 404 Elkins Road near Nordman, Idaho, on Priest Lake's northwest shore, roughly a two-hour drive from Spokane International Airport, the closest airport with regular commercial service. The drive winds through the Selkirk Mountains, reinforcing the resort's remote, forested character well before arrival.

Because the resort closes for two distinct maintenance windows — late October through the pre-Thanksgiving reopening, and mid-March through mid-April — travelers need to plan around those gaps rather than assuming year-round availability. Summer, particularly July and August, brings the warmest weather, huckleberry season, and the fullest slate of watersports and marina activity, making it the resort's peak period. The winter window, roughly Thanksgiving through mid-March, suits snowmobilers and cross-country skiers taking advantage of the regional trail network, and increasingly, couples booking winter weddings in the lodge. Given the resort's relative remoteness, advance planning around these operating windows matters more here than at more urban-adjacent destinations.

Nine Decades of Cedar and Continuity

Elkins Resort's history begins with Ike Elkins, who had fished Priest Lake since 1912 and, in 1932, took over a stalled hunting-and-fishing camp after the developers behind it defaulted. Elkins and his crew spent roughly seven years constructing the resort from cedar logs harvested in the surrounding forest; in the resort's early years, some workers were paid not in cash but in room, board, and clothing, a detail that reflects both the era's economic constraints and the improvisational nature of building a remote lake resort from scratch.

The result is the oldest, longest continuously operating family resort on Priest Lake — a milestone the property marked in 2021 with its 90th year in operation. Ownership passed out of the Elkins family on Christmas Eve of 1983, when Bob and Sharon Davis purchased the resort from Al Elkins, Ike's son. Today the Davis family's daughter, Tracie, and her husband, Mike Szybinski, manage the property, keeping it within a single extended family across roughly nine decades. That continuity shows up in guest loyalty as much as ownership: one guest reportedly returned to Elkins for around 80 years, and the resort counts multiple families now on their fourth generation of visits. That depth of documented, cabin-by-cabin history is unusual for a small lake resort and gives Elkins a texture other properties on Priest Lake can't easily replicate.

Frequently Asked Questions