Hikes in Washington: The Slavin Pond Highlands Loop Trail

BASIC INFORMATION

• Name: Slavin Pond Highlands Loop Trail
• Where: James T. Slavin Conservation Area, Washington
• Distance: 2.5 miles
• Elevation Gain: 128 feet
• Maximum Elevation: 2,423 feet
• Time: 1-2 hours
• Difficulty: Easy
• More Information: Spokane County Parks

Google Earth Map of the Trail

Directions

Getting to the James T. Slavin Conservation Area is an easy 20-30 minute drive down Highway 195 south of Spokane.  Drivers will need to keep their eyes open for the turn off on to E. Washington Road from the highway.  E. Washington Road is a dirt road that leads directly to the park from the Highway.

Parking

There is a large dirt parking lot that can get close to full on weekends when there is nice weather.

Narrative

There are a number of nice parks in the vicinity of Spokane that feature family friendly trails.  The latest one I hiked with my 6-year old son was the Slavin Pond Highlands Loop Trail.  This trail is located in the James T. Slavin Conservation Area which is just a short drive south of Spokane.  At the trailhead there is an informative booth that explains the history of the conservation area and had a trail map.

According to the sign, Spokane County acquired the 628 acres the park sits on back in 2000.  Since then, efforts to restore the wetlands has been so successful that a section of the original loop trail that circled Slavin Pond has been covered over with water.

This forces people who hike the trail to the opposite side of the lake to turn around and retrace their steps back to the trailhead. There are a number of other trails that meander around the park as well.  My son and I decided to try out the trail that looped around the park’s highlands.  From the trailhead instead of following the trail that went straight ahead to Slavin Pond we took a left towards the adjacent forest:

The trail was a total waterlogged and muddy mess from the recent melting of snow:

To make matters worse was the fact that the conservation area is popular for riding horses; this means there was horse manure all along the trail, even its dry sections:

After about half a mile my son and I popped out of the forest where the trail intersected with a gravel path:

We followed the gravel path towards the pond.  The path ran adjacent to a large waterlogged meadow that was filled with ducks:

Here is a closer look at some of the ducks we saw:

The gravel path can be taken as a loop hike back to the trailhead.  Instead we took the trail that crossed the boggy meadow:

Here is the view of Slavin Pond as we crossed the meadow:

On the other side of the meadow we came to the base of a forested bluff:

The trail then passed between the bottom of the bluff and Slavin Pond:

From here we had the choice of following the trail around to the opposite side of the lake or ascending the highlands.  We decided to take a trail at about the 1-mile mark into the hike, that ascended up the highlands and looped back towards the trailhead:

The trail was in some sections a muddy mess:

On top of the bluff is a large plateau that the melting snows had turned into a muddy bog:

My son and I very carefully worked our way through the muddy bog to the cliff line.  From there we had some partial views through the trees of Slavin Pond:

Here is the best view we got from the bluff of Slavin Pond:

As we continued to hike across the bluff below us, we could see the muddy trail we crossed the meadow on:

As we hike along the bluff we would occasionally see the below signs designating that we were on the very edge of the conservation area’s property line:

As we neared the end of the bluff we saw some very large boulders that one day erosion will cause to roll down the hill side:

Passed the boulders, we spotted the trail that descended down the cliff line:

We soon emerged back on the gravel path adjacent to the large meadow:

From here it was just a simple process of retracing our steps back through the adjacent forest to the trailhead:

We soon emerged out of the forest and saw the trailhead just a short walk across a muddy meadow:

Conclusion

My son and I ended up hiking 2.5 miles through the highlands of the James T. Slavin Conservation Area.  My 6-year old had no issues with the trail even though his feet and pants were a muddy mess afterwards.  Overall the conservation area is a nice local park, however it does have its issues.  The biggest issue is that it needs some trail maintenance to improve the many muddy sections of the trail.  It also needs to some tsignage along its trail system because there are currently none.  I think some benches at designated viewpoints would be nice to add as well.  With that all said, this is still a nice park that I recommend people looking for a family friendly hike in the Spokane area to check out; just be ready to hose off your kid’s muddy hiking shoes afterwards.