Hikes in Washington: The Knothead Loop Trail

Basic Information

• Name: Knothead Loop Trail
• Where: Spokane, Washington
• Distance: 7.8 miles
• Elevation Gain: 1,371 feet
• Max Elevation: 2,471 feet
• Time: 4-6 hours
• Difficulty: Medium
• More Information: Day Hike! Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Sandpoint

Google Earth Map of the Trail

Directions

The easiest way to reach the trailhead is to travel north on Division Street from downtown Spokane.  About two miles up Division Street make a left at the major intersection with Francis Avenue.  Travel down Francis Avenue and then make a right onto Indian Trail Road.  Follow this road through a nice neighborhood on a plateau above Spokane.  The road eventually descends off the plateau and crosses the Little Spokane River.  The Indian Painted Rocks Trailhead is visible on the left immediately after crossing the bridge.

PARKING

Parking for this hike can be found at the Indian Painted Rocks Trailhead which is part of Riverside State Park.  This means that hikers will need to display a Discover Pass in their windshield in order to park here.  Parking can get filled here very quickly and often requires motorists to park along the side of the road once the lot is filled.

Narrative

This spring I have been taking my two young kids on progressively more difficult hikes. Consulting my Day Hike! Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Sandpoint guidebook, I decided to really push them and see how they react to an over 7 mile hike with over a 1,000 feet of elevation gain with the Knothead Loop Trail.  We started the hike at the Indian Painted Rocks Trailhead:

At the trailhead it was easy to see that this area of Spokane was recovering from a wildfire in recent years:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic there was a signboard put up warning people to maintain the 6 feet social distancing guidance on the trail:

Before starting down the trail we first made the detour to checkout the Indian Painted Rocks located near the trailhead. The art was painted by members of the Spokane Indian Tribe approximately 250 years ago since it appears to have horses depicted.  Horses were not native to the area until the arrival of Europeans thus how the art is dated.  What the art means no one is completely sure:

After checking out the Indian art, we then proceeded down the section of the hike known as the Indian Painted Rocks trail.  This first section of the trail is dominated by rock outcrops scarred by the wildfire:

There was a number of downed trees along the trail that the park service had cut a path through, but one large tree had yet to be cut and had to be climbed over:

A really cool feature of the trail that my kids and I liked were these markers with QR codes that could be scanned with a smartphone and provide information about different areas along the Little Spokane River section of the hike:

The section of the hike that runs adjacent to the Little Spokane River was very pleasant:

The yellow flowers growing in the water were quite beautiful:

The trail then reaches a bird nesting area along the river which requires the trail to make a short ascent up the hillside to get around it:

The rock outcropping above us we would actually later hike up to further up the trail:

After passing the nesting area, the trail then descends back to the river which in this area was a large marsh land:

The trail at about the 1.7 mile point comes to the far trailhead for the Indian Painted Rocks Trail:

This is where most people turn around and retrace their steps back down the Indian Painted Rock Trail back to the parking lot.

For those wanting a long and more difficult hike they need to follow the Knothead Trail:

The Knothead Trail is located across the paved road from the trailhead:

The Knothead Trail is known as Trail 500 and loops up and around the surrounding mountains back to the original Indian Painted Rocks Trailhead:

The first section of the hike is a pleasant stroll through a forest:

At just over 2 miles the trail makes a sharp turn and begins steeply ascending up a hillside:

My kids needed a break once we reached the top of the hill:

At the top of the hill there is yet another paved road that needs to be crossed:

This section of the trail runs adjacent to a lot of private property and social trails.  There are plenty of signs and trail markers to keep people on the right path:

On this section of the trail we also began to see a lot of these beautiful purple wildflowers:

We also saw a lot of these yellow wildflowers as well:

The trail next goes from being a wide trail to becoming a single track trail as it switchbacks up a steep hillside:

This steep section of the trail even has a nice staircase built into it to help with the ascent:

On top of the stairs we began to have some views of the surrounding scenery:

At a little over three miles the trail comes to the intersection with Trail #502 that leads to the Knothead Trail Overlook:

Trail #502 is a single track trail that follows the cliff line to a viewpoint:

The viewpoint is located on a rock outcropping we saw earlier in the hike, that steeply descends down towards the river:

From the rock outcropping there is a really nice view below of the Little Spokane River:

We could also see to towards the west the thick forested cliffs that rise above the Spokane River valley:

Here is a wide angle photograph of the view from the cliff:

After spending about 15 minutes taking in the views we turned around and headed back to the intersection with Trail #500:

As we hiked further up the Knothead Trail we started having views of the Spokane River to the west:

The trail began to ascend some more up a hill and we spotted a small rock outcropping to check out:

We then continued up the trail where we came to a bench and a trail intersection.  We followed the short trail on the left up to the top of the Knothead Hill capped with rocks.  This photo from my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom – Drone shows the trail and the rock outcropping:

This hill was the highest elevation point of the entire hike at 2,471 feet.  From this rock outcropping we had a nice view looking north at an S-curve in the Spokane River:

For a better view I recommend walking a short distance down the hill to another rock outcropping:

From this rock outcropping, to the south we had a nice view of the Spokane River Valley where Riverside State Park and the Pine Bluff Loop Trail is located at:

This picture from the Pine Bluff Loop Trail actually shows Knothead Hill where we were on:

From the hilltop could also see down below the parking lot where paddlers and boaters can access the Spokane River from:

I then deployed my drone to get this nice picture of a major U-shaped bend in the Spokane River:

Here is a closer look at the S-curve in the Spokane River near Nine Mile Falls:

This next photo shows the ridgeline my kids and I ascended up to reach the hill we were on:

I then flew the drone to look at the surrounding hillsides:

I also checked out the wooded valley below where the trail would next descend into:

From the drone I could see the valley was going to be a steady descent all the way back to the trailhead:

I then flew the drone over to the Little Spokane River to get a photograph of it:

I next flew the drone over a section of the burn scar:

Here is one last drone picture looking straight down on both upper and lower rock outcroppings on the hill:

From the top of the hill we proceeded to follow the Knothead Trail down into a thickly forested valley:

After two miles of hiking we began to enter back into the burn scar area which meant we were nearing the trailhead:

About a mile later we reached the trailhead for the Knothead Trail:

Here is a closer look at the trailhead:

We next had to follow the short connector trail to get back over to the Indian Painted Rocks Trailhead:

Conclusion

The Knothead Loop Trail has a little bit of everything, a nice riverside stroll, followed by a steep ascent to the top of a hill with nice views, and ended with an easy descent through a lush forest.  The trail also provided a challenging 7.8 miles of hiking with over 1,300 feet of elevation gain.  My two kids were extremely tired from the hike, but still had a good time since we took many breaks.  Overall this is one of our favorite hikes in the Spokane area.