It will be a year ago at the end of the month that I drove up Northwest Boulevard toward my new home for the first time.

I was on the phone with a friend of mine when I noticed a young male deer, antlers freshly sprouted, standing near the Dalton Avenue intersection. I told my friend what I saw in excitement — we rarely saw wildlife of that size where I was living previously.

“Is that actually how it is up there? Nature everywhere?” my friend asked.

A year later, I can say: yes. Nature and all the beauty that it brings to our lives.

I spent the first half of my first year sticking close to home: I hiked Tubbs Hill for the first time two days after arriving in Coeur d’Alene before taking on English Point, Mineral Ridge and Canfield Mountain, to name a few.

Even as I straddled the border between urban and wildland, nature always found a way to surprise me. I saw two bald eagles — the first I’d ever seen in my life — glide along the Spokane River as I was walking my dog in October. That sighting turned out to be a preview of what was to come in winter, when the majestic birds descend on Lake Coeur d’Alene to feed on spawning kokanee salmon. They still turn my head every time.

I also learned to fly fish from someone who’s fished our local rivers since he was 12 years old. Feeling the pull of the river’s current against my waders is a thrill in its own right, but pulling in a fish (especially after losing several to not setting the hook hard enough) always feels like a major accomplishment. 

For anyone who says fishing is boring, I recommend getting a good look at the reds, greens and silvers of a cutthroat trout that you wrestled to reel in yourself. It’s pretty awesome.

On one drive home from a trip up the river, we rounded a corner on Coeur d’Alene River Road to see nearly a hundred elk grazing in a field — another first for me. The largest buck in the field made the deer I saw on Northwest Boulevard shrink in memory by comparison. After staring down our car for a few moments, he returned to his meal; he understood we were only passing through.

Despite the wild things I had already seen, I was always on the lookout for one in particular: a moose. Just about everyone I know had moose sighting stories and every time I ventured out, I would be sure that "today was the day."

As fate would have it, I finally saw a cow and her calf standing in the boggy waters near Fernan Lake this past weekend. It was only a glimpse from a car window, as perhaps for the first time in a while, I wasn’t actively looking for one. Once again, nature had surprised me with something truly special.

Nature’s beauty has also been measured in smaller moments throughout my first year in North Idaho. The sunsets. The fall colors rival anything on the East Coast. My dog is enjoying our first snow days even more than myself.

This past year has shown me that nature is immune to our expectations. The outdoors are best enjoyed when you let yourself simply be: Chances are, nature will provide something great. 

    I caught this little guy — my first cutthroat trout — right off the banks of the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River in early May. My biggest fish to date measured around 16 inches (I swear!)