Climbing up into forested mountain terrain, eventually the highway will bring us to the shore of sprawling Lake Coeur d'Alene. Quite a few Palouse residents have lakeside cabins here or have a boat in the water.
For free lake swimming, follow Lincoln Way east to the Coeur d'Alene City Park. It has a nice beach.
The lake is named after a local Indian tribe, of which WSU alum and famed author Sherman Alexie is a member. If you've seen Smoke Signals, you've seen the Coeur d'Alene reservation.
(By the way, those neo-Nazis you may have heard about that used to be at nearby Hayden Lake are long gone--forced out by opponents.)