Hikes in Washington: The Mt. Spokane Summit Trail

Basic Information

• Name: Mt. Spokane Summit Trail
• Where: Mt. Spokane State Park, Washington
• Distance: 12.2 Miles
• Maximum Elevation: 5,883 feet (1,793 m)
• Elevation Gain: 2,581 feet
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Time: 5-7 hours
• More Information: Washington State Park website

Mt. Spokane Summit Trail Topographic Map

Elevation Map

Mt. Spokane Summit Trail Google Earth Map

Directions

To get to Mt. Spokane State Park from downtown Spokane, take Division Street (Highway 2) North until it reaches the outskirts of town.  Eventually Highway 2 will reach an Intersection with Highway 206.  Make a right on to Highway 206 and follow it until it reaches Mt. Spokane State Park.  The trailhead for this hike is located just a short distance up the road from the state park office located at the entrance to the park.

Parking

The trailhead is located on the left site of the road and not very big.  I was the only one parked there at 8:00 AM in the morning.  However, when I returned from my hike that afternoon the parking lot was completely packed.

Narrative

The most prominent terrain feature that can be seen from the Spokane area is the appropriately named Mt. Spokane.  The mountain rises to an altitude of 5,883 feet which is really not that impressive of a height and is basically just a big round knob.  So there is nothing all that impressive or spectacular about Mt. Spokane, but the locals really like their mountain.  They like it so much that it was made into a Washington State Park and is home to a popular winter ski resort.  Here is a picture of what Mt. Spokane looks like when snowcapped:

Because of the ski resort there is a paved road to its summit that during the summer people use to take in spectacular views of the region.  I was looking forward to seeing the views from Mt. Spokane, but Instead of driving, I decided to hike from the base of Mt. Spokane all the way to its summit.  I figure with all the much higher mountains I have hiked up in Colorado this should be a pretty easy hike.  So at 8:00 AM in the morning I found myself at the trailhead for the the 110 Trail near the park’s entrance gate.  This trail goes 4 miles up the mountain before intersecting with the 140 Trail that would take me to the summit.

As I began hiking up the trail it immediately began going up hill:

The first section of the trail runs parallel to the Mt. Spokane Road where I could occasionally hear cars driving up:

Just before reaching the two mile point of the hike I came to a dirt road.  This dirt road actually goes around nearby Mt. Kit Cason and is very popular with mountain bikers.  The 110 Trail continued across the dirt road from me:

Something really good about this trail is that it is well marked.  There are blue diamonds nailed to the trees at regular intervals throughout the hike:

There is also ample signage to include this one at the intersection of the 110 and 100 Trails:

For this hike I stayed on the 110 trail and continued to ascend up the mountain.  I soon came to a small creek that I had to cross:

It was along this section of the trail I spotted many of these flowers beautiful plants which were in bloom:

At the 4 mile mark I came to the saddle between Mt. Kit Cason and Mt. Spokane.  This saddle is also the back side of the dirt road I had crossed earlier in the hike after it looped around Mt. Kit Carson:

The trailhead for the hike up Mt. Kit Carson is located at this trail intersection as well:

I am saving Mt. Kit Carson for a future hike with my two young kids since it is an easier hike compared to Mt. Spokane.  To continue up Mt. Spokane I crossed the road and began to follow the 140 Trail:

The 140 Trail descended into the trees and followed the adjacent dirt road for a little while:

Eventually the trail came to an area cleared of trees that is used as a ski run during the winter.  This gave me my first view from the hike.  Out in the distance I could see the mountains in extreme northeastern Washington near the Canadian border:

Here is a closer look at these mountains that are part of the Selkirk Range:

Looking up I could see I had a steep hike left to the summit of Mt. Spokane.  This was easily the steepest part of the entire hike:

Despite now having views to take in, this was my least favorite portion of the hike since it monotonously switchbacked up the ski run that was exposed to the hot sun, plus I had to continuously dodge mountain bikers that were zooming down the trail:

As I ascended up the switchbacks I eventually had a nice view of the twin bumps of Mt. Kit Carson (left) and Day Mountain (right):

I eventually did conquer all the switchbacks and made it to the upper trailhead:

The hike from the base to the upper trailhead was a total of six miles and I did it in under three hours.  There is a large parking lot at the upper trailhead and there was almost no one up there:

From the trailhead I walked over to check out the nearby ski lift:

There was a big sign posted there showing all the different ski trails on Mt. Spokane:

I next followed the path up to the Vista House built on the summit of Mt. Spokane back in 1934:

The Vista House was almost completely constructed of stone:

The door to the Vista House was open where I found a small room with a large fireplace:

Here is what the opposite side of the Vista House looked like:

I walked up the stairs and found that the door up there was open as well.  This was an even smaller room that appeared to be undergoing reservations:

The opposite side of the Vista House had a large porch with a number of picnic tables:

From here I found a table to sit at and take in the views. Here is the view looking east into Northern Idaho:

Mt. Spokane was noticeably higher than all the other nearby mountains I could see from the summit.  Out in the distance though I could see highest peaks of Idaho’s portion of the Selkirk Range that do rise higher than Mt. Spokane:

Right below Mt. Spokane I could see the ski resort:

Northern Idaho has a few very large lakes such as Lake Coeur d’Alene and Lake Pend Oreille, but from the summit I could not see them.  I could see Spirit Lake in northern Idaho though:

To the south I could see Spokane Valley and Mica Peak which is the southern most peak of the Selkirk Range:

I could also make out what appeared to be Newman Lake that lies at the base of Mt. Spokane:

From the Vista House I walked over to a talus rock field to take in views looking towards the north. I was a bit surprised by how large the talus rock field was on this portion of the summit. It was easy to see where the rocks to build the Vista House came from:

After spending about 30 minutes taking in the views I decided to head back down the trail.  I made great time down the ski slope switchbacks:

I quickly found myself back at the major trail intersection at the base of Mt. Kit Carson. There I continued my ascent down the 110 Trail:

Conclusion

I did a slow trot down most of the way and found myself back at the trailhead in under two hours.  In total I completed the hike 12.2 hike hike in 4 hours and 55 minutes which included the 30 minutes I spent on the summit.  After hiking this trail I concluded that this was a really good conditioning hike because of how steady the incline is throughout the hike.  However, the lack of views for most of the hike and the lack of interesting things to see made this hike a bit monotonous.

Probably because of the summit road, this trail appeared to not be popular with hikers since I saw only about a dozen the entire day.  What I did see was a lot of mountain bikers.  Some of them come zooming down the trail at a fast rate of speed and one almost crashed into me, but I jumped out of the way just in time.  Because of the mountain bikers I do not recommend young children on this trail.  Plus the distance and elevation gain is probably too much for most young children anyway.  However for anyone looking to push themselves and be rewarded with a nice view, the Mt. Spokane Summit Trail is worth checking out.