Dishman Hills is a natural area made up of three units. Iller Creek is the northern most and highest of them. The Iller Creek trailhead is located west of Dishman Mica Road in a residential area of Spokane Valley.
The trailhead has limited parking which usually isn’t an issue on weekdays. As soon as you start there is a fork. I always take the right path and hike the loop counter clockwise.
This trail follows a dry creek bed at a moderate grade through a thick forest. It isn’t very exciting but it gets you to where your going.
This preserved is managed by Spokane County as a conservation area. As is typical, Spokane County maintains a well built and marked trail system.
At two and a half miles in you come to the Rocks of Sharon. These massive boulders are a popular local rock climbing destination.
I typically spend over an hour exploring the rocks. There are over a dozen of these monoliths lined up on the south side of the high ridge.
This is a perfect place to stop for a break and enjoy the views.
And the view is of the Palouse Prairie, an area of rolling farmland that extends a hundred miles to the south.
North of the rocks is probably the largest collection of antennas and satellite dishes I’ve ever seen. Pretty much every television and radio station in greater Spokane uses this site to transmit their signals.
Another view of interesting rock formations.
At the Rocks of Sharon there is a junction with the Stevens Creek Trailhead connector. By using this access point it is possible to get to the rocks by hiking less than half the distance and a third of the elevation. Drive there though takes an extra hour.
I had the place to myself for a good hour. I highly recommend hiking this trail on weekdays. It can get awfully busy on weekends.
I just wish I hadn’t tried to drive my truck up the trail. No really, this isn’t the first old abandoned vehicle I’ve come across hiking close to Spokane. This was on the East Ridge Trail just after I started my return.
If you hike the loop counter clockwise, you will return to the Iller Creek Trailhead vis the East Ridge Trail.
The East Ridge Trail is more open and you get views of Spokane Valley and Mt. Spokane in the distance.
To the west you can see Mica Peak with it’s distinctive radar dome.
Five miles and twelve hundred feet later, you return to the starting point. Here is a picture at the trailhead of a mountain ash tree.
I first saw this place while flying out of the Spokane airport over a decade ago. It looked so cool from above I did a little research, found the trailheads and have since hiked it about a dozen times. I was a little surprised that the elevation gain turned out to be well over a thousand feet. It is one of the best little hikes close to Spokane that I know of.
