Category: Eastern Washington

The Columbia Plateau Trail, Amber Lake and an impressive embankment.

For todays hike, I headed an hour or so through and past Spokane to check out the Columbia Plateau Trail, specifically the section from the Amber Lake trailhead towards the north.

Last year I took a short hike on the Columbia Plateau Trail from the end of the pavement outside of Cheney Washington into the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. At the time I felt like I didn’t have enough photos or information on this trail to make a post. The unpaved part of the trail started at a trailhead off of Cheney Spangle Road.

The first mile of the trail passes through farm and ranch land before crossing under Cheney Plaza Road and entering the wildlife refuge.

Turnbull Wildlife Refuge is about 23,000 acres and covers a portion of the channeled scablands, a geological area in Eastern Washington created by ice age floods that stripped the soil away and left numerous narrow lakes in coulees. The section I hiked passed by several small lakes and through low cuts blasted through the basalt.

In the area excavated I notice this striking radial design around a small hole. Once you see one of these, you can’t un-see them. These were created by blasting the rocks so the basalt could be more easily removed. Once I saw it, I noticed dozens more through out the cuts.

This line, The Spokane Portland and Seattle was built in 1905 and operated for eighty plus years. The 130 miles between Spokane and Pasco are now owned by the State of Washington and maintained as a public trail.

That was last summer. Today I was looking for a place for a winter hike with limited or no snow and open scenery so I could stay in the sunshine, so I decided to check out another section of this trail.

It took me over a hour to drive to the Amber Lake Trailhead. All of the trailheads require the Discover Pass to use so I used mine. In addition to providing access to the trail there is also a place to launch kayaks or canoes on this pretty little lake.

Like most lakes in the Channeled Scablands, Amber Lake is long and narrow and oriented from the northeast to the southwest in the direction the ancient flood waters presumably flowed. Being late January the lake as to be expected was iced over.

Near the northeast end of the lake, the old railroad bed ran through a cut right next to it.

Soil and rock from the cut was used to create an embankment along part of the lake shore.

Beyond Amber Lake the rail bed curved towards another of these cuts through the basalt. Scattered Ponderosa Pines were the dominate tree species along the trail.

That and birch trees. What looked like frost was actually the last of Decembers snow that had not yet melted in the shade of the rock walls.

Around a bend was a tunnel, kind of. This is a recent addition to avoid crossing one of the only paved roadways in the area, Mullinex Road.

Even in a newer and very remote tunnel, the lowlife vandals have been hard at work degrading the experience for everyone. Thanks scumbags! Even though it wasn’t an original railroad tunnel it was still kind of neat to walk through.

Past the tunnel the cuts through the basalt got a little bigger. You have to be impressed with the work it took to make this railroad a hundred and twenty years ago.

This rock wall shows how the cooling lava created basalt columns. A patch of ice at the bottom is a seepage of ground water.

Between the cuts through the basalt the trail passed by numerous small ponds all frozen.

Beyond the trials crossing with Stirling Road the old railbed ran on top of a small embankment between wetlands. This is were I called it good and turned around.

Once back at the parking lot I took a short walk to get a good look at the part of the lake southwest of the trailhead. I decided to make one more detour before I made the drive home.

Just seven miles or so southeast the Columbia Plateau Trail kind of ends at Williams Lake Road just inside Lincoln County. I’ve always found the correlation between trees and the Spokane County line kind of interesting. Spokane County gets drier the further east you head but has Ponderosa Pines right up to the county line. As soon as you cross into Lincoln or Adams counties there are almost no trees.

South of Lake Williams Road the trail reverts to a rough surface of old railroad ballast and isn’t really suitable for even fat tired bikes. In fact its kind of hard to walk on. Only real adventures explore the eighty mile long section from here to Franklin County. Also I understand that several road crossings and high trestle bridges are closed and their are no practical detours around them.

However just across the road from the trailhead there was this epic piece of early twentieth century engineering. This was the largest railroad embankment I’ve ever came across and I couldn’t resist checking it out.

It was well over a mile across a coulee I couldn’t find the name of on this massive earthen berm. It is difficult to impart the scale of this marvel. Quick math gave me a ball park guess that upwards of half a million cubic yards of rock and dirt were used to create it.

Halfway across I could see the barren terraces were I’m guessing all of this fill came from over a hundred and twenty years ago. I’m guessing this embankment was over seventy feet above the coulee floor and tapered from thirty feet wide at the top to well over a hundred feet wide at the bottom.

Looking up the coulee I could see Down Lake with Mica Peak Washington in the far distance almost forty miles away.

After forty five minutes I made it to the other side of the coulee. Now there was nothing left to do but return to the trailhead. The sun was getting pretty low on the horizon and the scablands are lonely country.

I took a last look at this giant causeway and called it a day. I would call both the section of the trail southeast of Amber Lake and the massive embankment hidden gems in the Inland Northwest. It is an epic landscape indeed.

Exploring old abandoned railroads is one of my favorite things to do. This rail trail eventually crosses over the Palouse Cascade Trail anther thirty miles or so to the southwest. I guess I have more places to check out next spring.

Saltese Uplands Conservation Area

For my first post since my return to the Inland Northwest I headed fifteen minutes down the road to Spokane County’s Saltese Uplands Conservation Area.

I chose this hike because partially due to our mild winter, the site is mostly snow free and is open to the sun. When the wind is still and the sun is out thirty degrees isn’t too bad. Down at the valley floor at two thousand feet we’ve had les snow so far this year than Pensacola or New Orleans. The mountains are another story and I would have to trudge through several feet on the mountains that border Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

The hike starts at a trailhead on Henry Street between the towns of Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley. As always Spokane County offers free access for day users and maintains an excellent trail system on their properties. This is the first sign I’ve seen telling people not to leave their used dog poop bags on the trail. I see them all the time and am amazed at the mentality that thinks someone else should pick up after them.

They’re about seven miles of trails winding around the six hundred plus acres of native semi arid steep. Not all of the Inland Northwest is covered in farmland or evergreen forests. as I climbed a series of gentle switchbacks up Turtle Gulch, I had a view of the Saltese Flats Restoration Area, another Spokane County conservation site.

Only a few scattered Ponderosa Pines are found mostly in sheltered draws. The rest of the site is covered in grasslands with a few rock outcroppings.

The trail climbs to the sites highpoint next to a water storage tank. It is a leisurely walk. The total elevation gain around five hundred feet.

The Saltese Uplands are known for being a place to view bird life. I saw a couple of hawks, magpies and this little guy who let me take a photo.

Across the wetlands of Saltese Flats are the Dishman Hills with its excellent hiking including the Rocks of Sharon.

After climbing out of the gulch you are treated to nice views of the surrounding mountains. This is the view of Mica Peak Idaho, AKA “Signal Point” and Shasta Butte, “AKA Big Rock” along with smaller Cable Peak on the right side of the photo.

At the top there is a nice view of Liberty Lake with the mountains behind it. I could see ice forming on the lake. The marshland on the far right side of the picture is in Liberty Lake Park, another excellent hiking site owned and managed by Spokane County.

At the top there was a couple of inches of old snow from a few weeks ago. Due to the cold dry air and the effects of evaporation what was left looked like tiny shards of white glass.

Looking towards Idaho and Post Falls from the high point I enjoyed the view of Mt. Rathdrum center left and Chilco Mountain on the far right horizon. It was kind of neat seeing so many of my favorite hiking places. Now I can’t wait for the snow to melt.

I had to walk around the water storage tank on the top to get a view of Mount Spokane across the valley. They are definitely skiing up there.

After the high point, it was an easy three mile walk back to the trailhead. On the way I checked out Mica Peak Washington with its distinctive FAA radar dome. So you might ask why are they’re two Mica Peaks within six miles of each other. Well its because at some point the one in Idaho was renamed on topo maps. Most everyone who grew up here still calls it Signal Point. There is a town of Mica on the west side of Mica Peak Washington too.

Near the end I crossed the gully’s again and walked through this little tree tunnel where a seasonal creek runs in the early spring.

It’s not the most exciting hike in the area but it is different and more importantly a good place to stretch your legs in the winter. I ended up covering about five and a half miles which provided a much needed excuse to get outside this time of the year.

Hopefully I’ll get in a couple of more winter hikes while we are enjoying the break in the weather. I’m looking for low elevation sites that are mostly snow free and they’ll all be west of Spokane in the scablands.

Liberty Lake Loop Trail

I wrapped up the weekend by returning to Liberty Lake Regional Park for the first time this year. The park has been undergoing an extensive renovation and has been closed for the season.

When I arrived I discovered that the park was still closed. However signage at the entrance directed hikers to an alternative connection to the extensive trail system at the parks equestrian trailhead down the road about a mile. I should have checked this out sooner. The connecting trail was a gem I’ve never hiked before called the Zephyr Connector.

This trail meandered through an open pine forest for about a mile as it descended a couple of hundred feet to the main train along Liberty Creek. There were some open views of Liberty Lake and of Mica Peak on the way down.

South of the lake there are open meadows and wetlands on the floor of the valley.

At the bottom the scenery looked a lot like places I’ve hiked in central Florida. You just have to avoid seeing the mountains the other three directions.

As you head upstream the small valley closes in and you are soon walking through a thick forest. Being early October there wasn’t much water left.

This small ravine stays relatively moist throughout the year creating conditions that promote lots of moss and ferns. The track is in excellent shape and you slowly gain elevation as you follow the creek.

About two miles in from the equestrian trailhead you come to the cedar grove. There is a bench and interpretive signage here and the trail crosses the stream on a foot bridge. Immediately after the bridge, the trail climbs up the west slope of the ravine on a series of short steep switchbacks. This is were you gain most of the elevation on the hike.

At the end of the final switchback their is a nice open view back down to Liberty lake. The mountain across the Spokane Valley is Antione Peak, a place I hike and have posted about. Both the Antione Peak Conservation Area and Liberty Lake Regional Park are owned and managed by Spokane County.

After climbing out of the steep valley the trail travels along the west side and heads north and then northwest through a mature forest with large second growth trees.

At a couple of open areas high above the creek you can see across the ravine and have a view of Cable Peak on the Idaho side of the state line. The Idaho Department of Lands owns a block of land down slope that I enjoy hiking on.

As it is getting late in the season it was kind of chilly in the dense forest and even at midday the shadows are much longer than in summer. The trail ends up crossing one of the small creeks that flow together to create Liberty Creek on a small footbridge.

I almost had the place to myself. This trail is a loop trail, but I usually return the same way I came. If you take the full loop it is over a eight mile hike and the final descent to the creek is extremely steep.

After the steam crossing you continue up hill towards the waterfalls on a couple of questionable boardwalk sections. It look’s like these gems are due for a rebuild.

Then I finally make it to the roaring waterfall. What did you expect, after all it is October.

So here’s the same fall, the lower fall in spring. Much better. If you want to see waterfalls in this part of the country and really most any place in the United States, it’s best to go just after the snow melts off the trail.

Here’s the upper fall also in the spring time. This point is right at three miles in and a nice place to turn around.

On the way back I was treated to this sight. That is a bunch of lady bugs.

I also got to step over this little guy trying to soak up a little solar radiation on one of the last somewhat warm days of the year.

The entire hike worked out to be a little over six miles. The alternate trailhead added a little distance and elevation as I had to regain a couple of hundred feet right at the end of my journey. All together this made for about a twelve hundred foot elevation gain.

Liberty Lake Park is a great place to stretch my legs and its only fifteen minutes from my house. Give me Liberty or Give me Death.

I probably have made this hike over a dozen times since I moved to the Inland Northwest. There is a connector trail that traverses the north side of Mica Peak Washington and joins up with the trail system on the Mica Peak Conservation Area, yet another excellent Spokane County amenity.

The Little Spokane River

This was my second time kayaking the Little Spokane River from the St. George’s launch to the Nine Mile takeout. The kayak launch site and the take out are part of Riverside State Park so a Discover Pass is required.

The last six miles of the Little Spokane River is a very popular route for kayakers and paddle boarders. The adventure starts at the St. George’s Trailhead near the private academy of the same name off Waikiki Road near the northern edge of the urban area.

As this is a one way trip we had to stage a pickup vehicle at the takeout spot first. In the summer, the City of Spokane runs a shuttle service for a fee.

The crystal clear stream has a significant current and meanders around horseshoe bends pretty much the entire length of the trip. South of the river are small rocky bluffs.

Wildlife includes numerous aquatic birds.

Almost all of the shoreline is within the state park and even though we were in Spokane County, there’s almost no development along the river.

As far as I could tell we were the only people on the river on a clear warm Friday morning. The first time I paddled this river was on a weekend and we had lots of company. Things really quiet down after Labor Day in the Inland Northwest.

I had planned on making a post about this trip the first time I did it less than a month ago but long story short, it turned out I was going to need a new phone/camera after we made it about half way down and that’s all I have to say about that.

The entire trip took about three hours. We mostly let the current carry us downstream and just steered the kayaks around the bends.

About halfway down we passed under the bridge for the Rutter Parkway. Here is the only other place people can launch or takeout, however it involves carrying your kayak a couple of hundred yards through a swampy field.

Beyond the bridge and the landing at the Indian Rocks trailhead you can see the large rocky cliffs on the north side of the river.

The ducks show you the way.

The trip reminded me of canoeing on Florida spring runs. You don’t have to worry about alligators or snakes though.

The rocky bluffs north of the river are impressive. This is the small mountain the Knothead Trail goes up and over from the Indian Rocks Trailhead. I posted about this hike earlier this spring.

Here is the view of the Little Spokane River from that hike. It gives you some idea how serpentine the river is.

As we neared the end of the trip, the valley opens up. Beyond the takeout point the Little Spokane ends at it’s junction with the Spokane River. The Spokane River is impounded here by Long Lake dam creating the lake of the same name. Just upstream is the much smaller Nine Mile Dam, a point of interest on the Riverside State Park section of the Centennial Trail.

It was a nice day on the Little Spokane River. Hopefully I will visit it more often. It’s hard to believe this year was the first time I took this trip since I moved to the area eighteen years ago.

This is definitely one of the best kayak spots in the Inland Northwest. It can be busy on summer weekends but during weekdays and on the shoulder season it is wonderful. Next time I hope to see a moose or two.

The Palouse Cascade Trail part 3, biking west from Rosalia.

For my third trip this summer on the Palouse Cascade Trail, I headed west from Rosalia with the goal of making it to Malden. I fell short by a couple of miles. Better to enjoy a sixteen mile round trip than have a miserable twenty miler. Part 1 is under the hiking category as that is how I traveled it.

Rosalia is a small farming town on US-195 about thirty-five miles south of Spokane. The Palouse Cascade Trail crosses the old highway just south of Rosalia on this amazing concrete arch bridge. This bridge is a local landmark and still has the Milwaukee Railroad logo painted on it.

In addition to the old highway, this bridge crossed Pine Creek , a small stream the trail follows all the way to Rock Lake. The new US-195 crosses over the railroad easement just to the east. Rosalia is about twenty miles west of Tekoa, the town I used as my base for my last trip on the trail. The level of engineering used on the bridges give a hint that this was once one of the five transcontinental railroads in the United States.

The trail is a little hard to access from the town. Rosalia does have a small park with restrooms, but the trail is located up a steep slope from the town off of rough gravel roads. Within the first mile, a steep detour bypasses a place where an old bridge was removed over Gashouse Road. This intersection is the only thing resembling a trailhead in the area.

At the intersection their is an interpretive sign. The trail surface alternates between rough gravel ballast and soft sand. I heard the surface is far more challenging west of Rock Lake and Ewan.

The first couple of miles out of Rosalia parallels US-195 and passes though a typical mix of farmland and basalt cuts as it heads north and then northwest.

The trail passes a cemetery just outside of town. There’s one off the trail just east of Tekoa as well.

At Babb Road, the trail passes under the roadway in a newer culvert. I don’t think a train would fit through it. I’m not sure if this “tunnel” replaced a taller bridge or if the road just didn’t go through before the railroad was abandoned.

Evidence of a catastrophic wildfire from a few years ago was evident along the trail. This fire burned down much of the town of Malden and three or four bridges between that town and Pine City. Here I ran into the only other person I saw. This gentleman was nearing the end of a multiday journey that started in Cedar Falls over two hundred miles away. I was impresses. I made it sixteen and was tired by the time I finished.

Here is the first of several bridges over Pine Creek west of Rosalia. It was an impressive piece of engineering.

After the bridge, the trail passed through a couple of impressive cuts trough the basalt.

There are still old telegraph posts along the trail, some of which still had the old glass insulators. This was close to my turnaround point. I was still short of Malden by a couple of miles and the next bridge over Pine Creek was just around the bend. Sometimes a man has to know his limitations.

I saw a couple of coyotes and these white tail deer. Other than that my wildlife was limited to birds.

Most of the route of this trail is bordered by either farmland or cattle ranches. There were a few pieces of abandoned machinery along the way.

The trail passes through open range areas with gates that are the responsibility of the trail user to open and close. The State of Washington requires trail users to register on line so that they understand the rules. This process is simple and can be found here. The bovines did yield the right-of-way to me without argument.

On the way back to Rosalia I took a brief detour off trail to get a different preceptive of the bridge over Pine Creek.

When I got back to Rosalia, I ran into the same fella that I talked to on my way outbound. He was camping at the local park and we shared a couple of beers and traded stories about riding bicycle trails. Not a bad way to finish the trip.

An hour later I was back home after navigating rush hour traffic through Spokane. Between this ride and my two previous trips on the Palouse Cascade Trail I think I’ve seen most of it though eastern Washington. I would really like to explore the section through the Cascade Mountains closer to Seattle. I understand that part is beautiful and more user friendly. That might have to wait until next year.

McKenzie Conservation Area

Yesterdays hike at the McKenzie Conservation Area on the north side of Newman Lake is a return to a local hidden gem. Thank you Spokane County. This was my fourth trip here this year. The trailhead is only about fifteen minutes from my house.

A simple gravel parking area provides access to about five miles of hiking trails. I hiked about four miles of them by taking the Bedrock Ridge Trail and returning on the Turtle Rock Trail with a side trip south through the marshlands to the property boundary and back. Oddly enough, Spokane County has another conservation area only a few miles to the south with slightly different spelling called Mackenzie next to Liberty Lake Park. If anyone who reads this blog knows why that is please let me know.

The first part of the Bedrock Ridge Trail winds through a nice mixed forest. One of the things I like about McKenzie is the tree variety. Pretty much every species native to the area is represented.

The two species of firs, Grand and Douglas often grow side by side. Douglas firs are not true fir trees and the needles grow out of the stem in a radial pattern. Grand firs have flat needles like a feather.

The Bedrock Ridge Trail gains a little bit of elevation and true to it’s name about a mile in you come to rock outcroppings near the high point of the trail.

Here you see Newman Lake for the first time on the hike. On the drive to the trailhead you get to see a lot of the lake from the the windshield. It is a scenic drive.

At the junction with the Turtle Rock Trail I went right instead of left to check out the wetlands on the south end of the conservation area.

Something had a sweet tooth. I saw more than one hive broken open and scattered. I imagine the first few licks of honey were awfully tangy.

I turned around and made my way to Turtle Rock. This is the only spot on the property where its possible to access the lake without wading through marshlands. Allegedly this was a favorite campsite for Native Americans.

Most of the walk back on the Turtle Rock Trail is flat and skirts wetlands.

There are some pretty big cottonwood trees in the lowlands along with cedars and hemlocks. The conservation area has several mature western white pines which is nice to see as they were almost eliminated from the region due to the white pine blister rust and over harvesting.

Another view of Newman Lake.

McKenzie Conservation Area is a nice place to enjoy a relaxing walk in the woods. The elevation gain is minimal and views are beautiful. That’s Mica Peak Idaho, AKA Signal Point, in the distance. There is another trail that crosses Newman Lake Road and climbs considerable higher up the ridge if you just have to get more of a workout. This loop adds another mile of two to the hike and gains maybe 400 feet of elevation. There are no views of the lake through from this trail.

The Palouse Cascades Trail part 2, Biking from Tekoa to Seabury and back.

Yesterday I tool a sixteen mile trip on a section of the Palouse Cascades Trail on my old trusty mountain bike.

I started my trip in the small town of Tekoa. It is one of the nicer towns in the Palouse and has several historic buildings including this old art deco movie theater. Across the street is a small park with a public restroom, a rare amenity out here in farm country.

The landmark Tekoa trestle dominates the local landscape. This 976 foot long and 125 foot high structure carried the transcontinental Milwaukee Road rail line over Hangman Creek, State Road 27 and another old railroad easement.

There is a trailhead off Washington Street on the east side of the trestle with interpretive signage and a picnic table. This trail is managed as a Washington State Park and extends from the Idaho state line almost to the Seattle area.

From the trestle there is a view of the town looking up Hangman Creek. In the background is Liberty Butte, one of several large hills embedded in the middle of an expanse of wheat fields.

The trail winds through miles of agricultural land alternating between cuts through the hills and embankments between them.

About three miles in you come to Lone Pine. There are the remains of an old grain loading facility here and not much else.

Wheat is the main crop here and in places they cultivate it right to the edge of the trail bed. About eighty percent of the fields I rode by were already harvested but some were still waiting for the combines.

Tekoa is in Whitman County which bills itself as the largest wheat producing county in the United States.

Amber waves as far as the eye can see. From the trail you get to see scattered farm buildings and spacious skies.

I crossed under one old bridge. The trail surface varied from rough ballast to fresh gravel and some areas of dried compacted dirt. I don’t usually ride on gravel and going sixteen miles on it was like riding forty on pavement.

I came across two places where small bridges had been removed and the state build a bypass trail.

Just before my turn around place, I arrived at the historic Seabury Bridge. I walked the bike across as some of the gaps in the decking could easily catch a bicycle tire and eight miles is a long way to walk back. There is a lot of useful information about the trail on the home page for the Palouse Cascade Trail Coalition, a non-profit group dedicated to supporting improvements to the trail.

The Seabury Bridge crossed over another railroad which is now also abandoned. Here you can see the cut of the Spokane Inland Empire branch that at one time extended all the way to Lewiston.

Here is the best view I could get of this impressive structure. It’s long way down to the bottom and the land down there is privately owned.

So here was the end of my ride. Washington State Parks put up these mile markers at the same spots the railroad at one time had them. They show the distance from the start of the railroad in Chicago.

The way back was pretty but I did have to deal with a decent head wind. Winds on the Palouse are usually out of the southwest or west. Today it was out of the northeast.

It was a relief to make it back to Tekoa. That’s Tekoa Mountain in the background looking northeast from the deck of the trestle.

The 287 mile long trail almost spans Washington. Through Eastern Washington it is lightly used. I was the only one on it for all sixteen miles. Earlier this summer I had hiked the section along Pine Creek and Rock Lake. This was the first time I rode part of it. Next time I’ll bring a couple of replacement inner tubes just in case.

Dishman Hills, hiking Iller Creek and the Rocks of Sharon.

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.

Peewee Falls, Z Canyon and Sullivan Lake Kayaking Trip

Thursday I headed to Boundary Dam near the Canadian border to check out a couple of places I always wanted to kayak, explore the area a little and spend the night camping.

My first stop was at the overlook for the Box Canyon Dam and old railroad bridge outside of Ione along the Pend Oreille River. This old rail line is now abandoned, but as recently as ten years ago they operated a tourist train along this stretch.

A little further along the scenic byway there’s a rest area from which a short walk brings you to Sweet Creek Falls. Two trails access the falls. This is the lower trail.

The upper falls trail provides a different perspective of the cascade.

Sweet Creek Falls is a gem and easily worth a thirty minute delay. They’re are even picnic tables along the trail, some with views of the falls.

After about three hours of driving with a couple of stops, I arrived at my destination for the day, a recreation area just above Boundary Dam. You can see the dam’s Vista House on the right side of the picture on top of the bluff but it was closed and they weren’t giving tours either. I wanted to take a photo of the face of the dam. This is the dam that was used as the set for Bridgetown in the Kevin Costner movie, The Postman. Tom Petty played the mayor of this fictional post apocalyptic settlement.

The dam wasn’t the main reason I came all this way, well sort of. It did create the reservoir I planned to kayak on so there’s that. Boundary Dam is over three hundred feet high and backs up the Pend Oreille River over seventeen miles to the town of Metaline Falls. Immediately above the dam is Forebay, a substansial body of water with a campground on it. All of this is managed by Seattle Power and Light.

After picking my campsite, I unloaded the kayak and headed around the bend to check out Peewee Falls. This amazing waterfall drops straight in to the lake at the end of a deep cove. It is not visible from the recreation area or the dam.

I lingered around the falls and took a few photos. The sun was heading down putting the waterfall in the shade and the wind was picking up so I headed to my next destination.

A narrow opening at the south end of Forebay lead me to Z Canyon. This spectacular canyon was flooded by the dam a century ago and is now very popular with boaters and kayakers despite it’s remote location.

All along the way upstream there are interesting rock walls and a new view around every bend. The wind was intermittently building up which made for a lot of work. The few boats that came by created much more turbulence than I expected because the steep rock walls of the canyon reflected the wakes and in places it was like being in a washing machine.

After a mile or so, I came to the end of Z Canyon and at this point there is an island separating the main channel from a more protected slough. the Everett Slough Campground is located here and here I was able to land and take a break.

While floating over shallow water I came across this sight. Apparently the level of the water fluctuates daily depending on the power generation needs the result being that flowers and weeds that grow on the wetlands are sometimes covered in water.

I captured this amazing image and thought it looked a lot like an impressionist painting. Drowned daisies.

On my way back down the canyon, I came across an upside down tree. It looked like this Western Red Cedar had been growing like this for many years.

After getting back to the campground I took a trip exploring the area in the couple of hours I had before sundown. I checked out Gardner Caves in Crawford State Park and saw a hole in the ground surrounded by a fence. They have a very limited tour schedule and I missed the last one so I took a little hike and came across a sign that let me know I should turn around.

I drove across the river and towards Canada to find the Vista House and that’s when I found out it was closed. At least I got this view of Hooknose Mountain from a scenic overlook.

The next morning the lake was like glass and with the light coming from the east I decided to take the same trip again looking for a more relaxing and photogenic experience.

I got one. The waterfall was in full light creating a rainbow effect and the skies were perfectly clear and blue and the moon made a cameo.

It was early and I had the place to myself.

At least until the first boat showed up. Now it was time to explore Z Canyon again only this time wind and boat free.

It was much more relaxing this time.

There are a few small caves in the cliff sides along the canyon. I’m not sure how far they go in and wasn’t interested in the tricky landing and steep scramble up the bank to find out. After all there might be a grizzly inside.

Z Canyon is an amazing place and I would be happy to kayak it again. From the boat launch to Peewee Falls and then up the canyon and back only took three hours.

On the way back since the lake was still glass flat, I took the longer way across and was treated to this view of the falls with Hooknose Mountain in the background. It was still early so I packed up and headed to my next adventure.

Sullivan Lake was about a forty minute drive through Metaline Falls and east another few miles.

On the way I stopped at the Old Mill Pond Historic Site as was recommended by a friend of mine. This is the view of Sullivan Creek downstream from the old dam site. The creek drains Sullivan Lake and ends up emptying in to the Pend Oreille River in Metaline Fall.

I don’t know how long ago my buddy was here but it turned out they removed the dam seven years ago draining the 64 acre lake to restore the place to a riverain habitat. The dam hadn’t been used for power generation in over fifty years but they kept it in place as people liked to use the lake for recreating. There was a bunch of interpretive signage explaining the reasons and benefits of removing the dam.

So it was back to Sullivan Lake. I launched at the day use area for the west campground. A grass airstrip separates the east and west campgrounds. This bluff was just east of the east campground.

Sullivan Lake is over three hundred feet deep. It is a natural lake that was raised twenty-five feet by a small dam at the outlet. The west side of the lake is bordered by a scenic road and the east side is basically uninhabited, just steep slopes down to the shore.

The shoreline was to be honest kind of boring. The main draw for this body of water is the incredible water quality. Kayaking, you could see the bottom in thirty feet of water. I didn’t swim at Boundary Dam because, well because it is downstream from Missoula and Butte Montana, Sandpoint Idaho, Newport Washington and lots of other smaller town. The water looked okay but I knew where it came from. Sullivan was a much better place to take a swim.

So I found the only place on the eastern shore with a small beach and did just that. There was not one other boat or kayak on the lake in the middle of a warm clear summer Friday.

So I started the two and a half hour drive back to Post Falls and took the less traveled county road on the east side of the Pend Oreille River when I discovered a pull out for Manresa Grotto. They had a vault toilet so I decided to stop.

I’m glad I did. It was a fascinating place with small caves and historical significance.

It was a great place to stretch my legs for a few minutes. I was surprised that I had never heard of it. Another hidden gem in the Pacific Northwest.

The only downside was that the place seemed to be popular with vandals and was heavily graffitied. The biggest cave smelled like they sacrificed skunks in there over the years.

So I finished my tour of the Pend Oreille Scenic Byway and drove the rest of the way home. Three decent kayak trips in two days was the highlight. All of my short on foot walks weren’t long enough to call hikes but did add a little variety. I liked Peewee Falls and Z Canyon so much I paddled them twice and would be happy to do so again.

Spokane River Centennial Trail, Riverside State Park.

Today I rode the twelve miles of the Spokane River Centennial Trail inside of Riverside State Park, out and back. It was the first time in at least a decade.

I tried to access the trail at the T J Meenach bridge at the base of Doomsday Hill, but a crazed meth-head was yelling at me and anyone else driving down the road so I opted to start at the Fort George Wright Military Cemetery Trailhead instead.

This is the warning sign I was greeted with. I really never see these in Idaho. There were several other cars already parked so I decided to take my chances.

The old military post cemetery was well kept by the staff of nearby Fairchild Airforce Base. This area used to be an army post named after George Wright, a man who had a controversial past as it related to his treatment of native Americans. Apparently as part of the recent movement to rewrite history, the old post and the nearby major roadway were renamed. The only reference to the original name is the cemetery.

Immediately after the cemetery, the trail descends on a screaming grade down towards the river. This is by far the steepest grade I’ve ever encountered on a bike trail. I smoked by brakes to keep from gaining to much speed to control my bike. The photo doesn’t do it justice but we’re talking about maybe a 10% grade for a half a mile. I had to walk my bike back up the hill. There was no way I could have pedaled it.

Additionally, the first two miles of the trail had just about the worst surface I’ve ever encountered on a bike trail. The bumps were big enough to throw you off the bike and the weird gaps in the trail (expansion joints?) could easily catch and pretzel a bike wheel. I thought about giving up for a minute.

So it was with great trepidation when I saw the sign that told me the bikeway was ending and that the next part was going to be on share the roads. Surprisingly the grades were milder and the pavement in far better shape.

The old park scenic drive had been segmented many years ago so that the sections that still supported automobile traffic were by and large dead ends to trailheads used by hikers and bicyclist. There was next to no traffic on them and they were well maintained.

Soon I came across an old scenic overlook. This is looking back to the east up the river towards downtown Spokane.

Looking the other way there was a commanding view of the Bowl and Pitcher rock formations. These are the most popular places in Riverside State Park, but are usually accessed from the other side of the river.

Using the zoom on my basic phone camera revealed a nice view of downtown Spokane maybe five miles to the southeast. The highlands behind it are Dishman Hills, a popular in close to town place to hike.

Looking down the river from the bluff the view was of a flood plain pine forest between dry grassland slopes.

The old park scenic road was largely built during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps. At the trailhead, the roadway was blocked to vehicles and was truly a bikeway again, only this time with a much better surface. As it was made for cars, some of the hills were fairly challenging for a bicycle.

A little further was the site of the camp for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). The only reminder of this camp that supported a couple of hundred young men working on park improvements is the old fireplace from the recreation building.

At the McLellan Trailhead there was a nice map to show you where you’ve been and how far you have to go.

The trail continued along the old park road, some of which was open to vehicle traffic and most closed to it. For much of the ride, the Spokane River was near the trail with pretty views.

This one was one of the nicest. I thought it looked a little what I imagine Ireland looks like with the emerald green and peaceful water.

There are some nice rock (basalt) formations along the way. Most of the canyon carved by the Spokane River in the park is basalt.

A steep grade brought me to a place I recognized and yes, I had to walk my bike back up this one too. My brakes got a work out.

Around the bend was the bridge over Deep Creek, a place I hiked and posted about last spring. A lot of people land here in kayaks to swim and hang out.

Deep Creek here is a backwater of the Spokane River. There is no flow at all this time of year. The hike up the canyon is scenic but with it being in the mid-nineties today I rather be on a bike. It was a little on the toasty side.

In addition to the “bikeway” and sections of the old scenic park road, two short sections of the trail were share the road on public streets with generous shoulders. These parts of the trail were lightly traveled mostly by the few folks that live off of them and in really good shape. It was an easy way to get from point A to point B.

A couple of miles before the trail ends it passes by Nine Mile Falls and the dam of the same name. This hydroelectric plant is well over a hundred years old and still in use.

The last time I rode this trail this is were it ended. Since then they added a couple of miles starting behind this elementary school and continuing through pine flat woods.

The two miles of brand new pavement winds through an open ponderosa pine forest on the way to it’s final destination.

Just before the end of the trail, it descends towards the river on a series of well made switchbacks.

The trail ended at a recreation area with a boat ramp and a swim beach. It wasn’t anyplace special, but it was a place to end the trail While standing on the dock, I got one last pleasant surprise.

A low flying B-52 out of Fairchild Airforce Base orbited the lake. I used to see those regularly in Florida back when Orlando International Airport was McCoy Airforce Base. They are an impressive sight. Hard to believe a few are still in service after sixty years.

Combined with the Spokane Valley section and the urban section of the Spokane River Centennial Trail, the twelve miles or so of the Riverside State Park section makes for a forty mile long bike way from the Idaho State line to the Nine Mile Campground and Boat Launch. The North Idaho Centennial Trail continues east to Higgins Point for another twenty four miles. This twelve miles of the trail is by far the most challenging.