Hikes in Washington: The St. George’s Trail

Basic Information

• Name: St. George’s Trail
• Where: Spokane, Washington
• Distance: 6.3 miles
• Max Elevation: 2,201 feet
• Elevation Gain: 896 feet
• Time: 3-4 hours
• Difficulty: Medium
• More Information: Spokesman Review

Google Earth Map

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

My seven year old son wanted to try a long hike of about six miles in order to push himself a little more than the shorter hikes we have been doing.  Consulting my Day Hike! Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Sandpoint guidebook, I found an about six mile hike called the St. George’s Trail along the Little Spokane River.  We haven’t explored this part of Spokane yet so we were eager to check it out.  We began our hike at the Indian Painted Rocks Trailhead by first checking out its namesake painted rocks.  Due to vandals the rocks were locked up behind bars:

The below picture provides a closer look at the art that 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:

The start of the St. George’s Trail begins by following the dirt trail that runs adjacent to the road:

The trail crosses a large meadow that leads to the Little Spokane River.  Here is a look back towards the trailhead where a large burn scarred hill overlooks the river:

The dirt trail ends at a put in location for kayaks and canoes:

From here we had to cross over the guard rail and walk across the highway bridge:

Here is a view of the Little Spokane River as seen from the bridge:

On the other side of the bridge we had to very carefully cross the busy road to continue up the St. George’s Trail:

The trail for the first mile runs adjacent to the meadows along the banks of the Little Spokane River.  During this stretch of the hike there is a bench with a nice view of the scenery:

At about the one mile mark is when the trail begins to ascend up the adjacent hillside away from the river:

All along the way we got to enjoy the many yellow wildflowers that could be seen along the trail:

The trail next descended into a rocky gorge:

The walls of the gorge were pretty impressive in spots:

While hiking up the gorge my son and I were constantly under assault by mosquitos:

I hadn’t seen mosquitos swarms that bad since hiking in Hawaii.  When we hiked out of the gorge we we hoped that the mosquitos would go ahead, but they were still pretty bad away from the gorge as well.  After the gorge the trail came to intersection where a left would lead to St. George’s School and right continues on the St. George’s Trail:

At about the two mile mark there is another trail intersection.  My son and I accidentally went right instead of left.  Going right did lead to a really cool rock formation we spent some time checking out:

We realized we had made the wrong turn and returned back down the trail.  By making the correct turn we passed through this gate that leads out of Riverside State Park and into the private property of St. George’s School:

St. George’s is an elite and very expensive private school that has an absolutely beautiful campus along the Little Spokane River.  Along the trail the St. George’s School property signs can be seen:

Shortly after passing by the gate the trail begins to steeply ascend up a large hill:

There is about 800 feet of elevation gain on this section of the trail which was giving my son quite a workout.  We took necessary breaks and he made it to the top of the hill where a bench is located at:

For those that want to hike the full trail, it continues beyond the bench for about a half mile where it descends down to another trailhead near a fish hatchery.  We were happy with stopping at the bench and eating our lunch.  While my son ate his lunch I took out my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom – Drone to take some aerial footage of the area.  This first picture is a view looking northeast up the Little Spokane River where the 5,883 foot Mt. Spokane can be seen rising in the distance:

Here is the view looking directly towards the east where the Mead area of northern Spokane could be seen:

Here is the view looking west down river where the trailhead is located at the base of the burn scarred mountain on the middle left:

Right below the hill is where the St. George’s School is located:

Here is another view of the beautiful location of St. George’s School:

Finally here is the view looking towards the west where a high plateau can be seen that the Indian Trail Road crosses to reach the trailhead for this hike:

My son and I spent about 45 minutes at the bench before he felt reenergized enough to hike back to the trailhead.  Since it was all down hill, my son completed the final 2.7 miles of this hike with only one break.  In total we hiked 6.3 miles which was a new distance record for my seven year old.  He was very proud of this and wants to try for seven miles next time.

Conclusion

This was a fun hike, but the amount of mosquitos on sections of the hike was pretty horrible.  I highly recommend wearing long pants and bringing bug spray if hiking this trail during the warmer months.  Another negative is that the St. George’s Trail doesn’t have many views.  The only real view is at the bench on the hill and even that view is obscured partially by trees.  The view of the meadows at the start of the hike along the Little Spokane River are quite nice though.   Overall this is a nice trail for locals to explore, but there are far better hikes to be found in the Spokane area.