Hikes in Washington: The Iller Creek Trail

Basic Information

• Name: Iller Creek Trail
• Where: Spokane Valley, Washington
• Distance: 5.3 miles
• Elevation Gain: 1,293 feet
• Maximum Elevation: 3,534 feet
• Time: 3-4 hours
• Difficulty: Medium
• More Information: Spokane County website

Google Earth Map of the Trail

Directions

To get to the Iller Creek Trailhead from Spokane travel east on I-90 into Spokane Valley.  Exit at E. Appleway Boulevard and follow it to the intersection with Dishman-Mica Road.  Make a right here and travel about 2 miles south until reaching the Schafer St. intersection.  Make a right here and follow the road until it reaches the intersection with 44th Avenue.  Make a right here and then make a left shortly after on to S. Farr Road.  Continue to follow Farr Road through the very nice neighborhood until it reaches Holman Road.  Make a right onto Holman Road and follow it to the trailhead.  Make sure to drive slowly through the neighborhood when traveling to the trailhead.

Parking

There is a small parking lot at the trailhead, but there is ample parking along side the road as well.  The trailhead is marked by this sign:

Narrative

The Iller Creek Trail is a very popular hike in the Spokane area that is located in the Dishman Hills Conservation Area.  The highlight of the hike is the the “Rocks of Sharon” which are a collection of large rock outcroppings located on top of a high ridgeline south of Spokane.  There are two routes to the rocks and my two young kids and I decided to take the longer just over 5 mile roundtrip hike that begins at the Iller Creek Trailhead.  At the trailhead there is a signboard with information about the conservation area and a map:

Since the COVID-19 pandemic was ongoing when we did this hike, the trailhead was marked with a warning sign to practice social distancing:

After checking out the signboard we went to the start of the hike where there are two routes that hikers can choose to go on:

It doesn’t matter which one is taken since it is a loop hike.  My kids and I decided to take the trail on the left that is more exposed to the sun since it was still early and cool outside.  The left trail almost immediately began to ascend out of the forest:

After as short distance we exited the trees in the valley below and ascended up a hillside vegetated with scrub brush:

Since it was spring time there was also plenty of wildflowers that could be seen as well:

On the top of the hill we had a really nice view of Spokane Valley and the snowcapped Mt. Spokane out in the distance:

We could even see the snowcapped mountains of northern Idaho out in the distance:

While my kids took a break on the top of the hill, I took out my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom – Drone and took a few aerial photos of the area.  Here is the view looking north towards Spokane Valley:

Here is the view looking east where the 5,209 foot Mica Peak can be seen in the distance:

To the north I could see Iller Creek Trail heading further up hill towards the ridgeline where the Rocks of Sharon are located at:

Finally here is the view looking west where below is the opposite side of the loop trail that follows Iller Creek back to the trailhead:

After my kids finished their break, I packed up the drone and we proceeded to head further up the trail.  The trail soon entered into a thick forest which shaded us from the sun:

Further up the trail we were surprised to see an old pickup truck that some time ago apparently broke down on and old road and was subsequently swallowed up by the forest:

As we approached the top of the ridgeline there were a few social trails going in various directions, but there were trail markers to keep us on the correct path:

Just before reaching the Rocks of Sharon we came to the intersection between the Stevens Creek Trail and the Iller Creek Trail:

The Iller Creek Trail is a shorter hike to the Rocks of Sharon that is accessed from the southern entrance into the Dishman Hills Conservation Area. From the trail intersection we had one more uphill push before reaching the Rocks of Sharon:

On the summit of the ridgeline we saw a number of rock outcroppings that did seem out of place up on this ridgeline:

It is estimated that about 70 million years ago volcanic magma from the earth’s hot mantle bubbled up to the surface through cracks in the Earth’s crust and cooled to form the stones seen today.  However, the rocks would have remained hidden below ground if it wasn’t for the Ice Age Floods that swept over the Dishman Hills 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.  The floods washed away incredible amounts of dirt and soil that exposed the rock formations seen today:

This signboard located in the northern most section of the Dishman Hills Conservation Area provides a good depiction of how much water raced through this area during the repeated floods:

The name of rocks comes from a country store called Sharon’s that was located along an old railway line that ran between Spokane and Pullman below the ridgeline back in the early 1900’s.  People wanting to access the rocks would get off the train at Sharon’s and hike up the Steven’s Creek Trail thus giving the rocks its name.

Besides the rocks, the summit was also covered in these pretty yellow wildflowers:

Here is a closer look at the flowers:

My kids had a lot of fun scrambling around on the smaller rocks.  There was also sweeping views of the Palouse hills to the south of Spokane:

Out in the distance we could see Steptoe Butte (right) and Kamiak Butte (left):

As we continued to walk along the ridgeline, we passed “Big Rock” which rise 230 feet in the air and is a popular rock climbing spot:

The rock outcroppings continued all the way up towards the summit of Tower Mountain where a number of radio and telecommunications towers are located:

On the summit I once again took out my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom – Drone and took some aerial pictures of the area.  Here is how the main area of the Rocks of Sharon looks like from the air:

Here is a closer look at “Big Rock”:

This view from the opposite direction gives a better indication of just how much bigger “Big Rock” is compared to the other rocks:

Here is a view of “Big Rock” with the drone looking directly at its front side:

Finally here is a look at “Big Rock from directly above it:

After having lived in Colorado Springs for many years, it was hard to get too excited about the Rocks of Sharon when compared to the Garden of the Gods.  However, for the Spokane area, the rocks are pretty impressive. If someone was to climb “Big Rock” here is the view they would have over the Palouse hills to the south of Dishman Hills:

Here is the view to the east towards Mica Peak:

Here is the view looking north towards Spokane Valley with the Iller Creek Valley down below:

Here is the view looking west towards Tower Mountain:

Here is one last photo I took of the Rocks of Sharon as seen looking down from near Tower Mountain:

After spending over an hour on the summit checking out the rocks, eating snacks, and flying the drone, we decided to follow the Iller Creek Trail off of the ridgeline back to the trailhead:

Along the way there is a trail intersection where the left fork of the trail can be taken to explore the summit of Tower Mountain.  My kids were tired and weren’t up for it.  For those with some extra energy this is another part of the ridgeline that can be explored:

My kids and I instead took the right fork and descended down towards Iller Creek.  When we reached the creek there was barely a trickle of water coming down through the valley:

For most of the walk back down the mountain we were surrounded by the thick vegetation that grows near the creek:

Once we reached the lower section of the valley, Iller Creek had a little more water flowing in it:

Since the final 2 miles of the hike was all down hill we made great time getting back to the trailhead.  My kids only stopped for a break one time.  We ended up finishing the hike to include the time we spent on the summit in just under 4 hours.

Conclusion

This is a great family friendly hike in the Spokane area with a wide well marked trail that has some neat rock formations for kids to scramble on as a reward for completing it.  Because of this fact the trail sees a lot of hikers, so if you are looking for solitude this is not the trail for that unless you hike it early in the morning.  For everyone else this is a hike that everyone in the Spokane area should check out.