Hikes in Washington: The Mt. Spokane Entrance Double Loop Trail

Basic Information

• Name: Mt. Spokane Entrance Double Loop Trail
• Where: Mt. Spokane State Park
• Distance: 5 miles
• Elevation Gain: 991 feet
• Max Elevation: 3,650 feet
• Time: 3 hours
• Difficulty: Easy
• More Information: Day Hike! Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Sandpoint

Google Earth Map of the Trail

Terrain 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.  We arrived at 11:30 in the morning and there was only two spots open for us to park at.

NARRATIVE

It was a cloudy day with chance of rain so my kids and I decided to do a forest hike.  A forest hike I have been meaning to take my kids on are the trails near the entrance of Mt. Spokane State Park.  The park is littered with many trails that we have been slowly completing.  Our plan this time was to take Trail #121 to the intersection with Trail #120.  From there we would complete a loop of Trail #120 down the ridgeline to Bear Creek Lodge and back.  We would then take Trail #122 back to the trailhead to complete and double loop trail hike:

Trail #121 can be found across the street from the parking lot.  Be careful crossing the road because people driving down hill from Mt. Spokane are often speeding:

The trail immediately enters into the beautiful and lush forest:

Below the trail we could see and hear a rapidly flowing creek:

The trail next makes a sharp bend up the hillside:

We next came to the intersection with Trail #120.  We followed the trail to the west towards the park’s entrance:

Trail #120 continued to be a pleasant walk through the lush forest:

The trail is nice and wide which makes it a very safe path for kiddos:

The next trail sign we came to is where Trail #120 become a loop.  We made a right at the intersection and descended down the hillside:

The trail was initially in good shape:

After about a half mile the trail started to become overgrown:

Then we had to start crawling under and over various trees that had fallen across the trail.  The park service needs to do some serious trail maintenance on this section of the trail:

After about a mile descent we popped up at the sledding hill managed by the Bear Creek Lodge located across the adjacent road:

The hill was not very big, but it had its own rope lift for kids to use for sledding:

There is also a really cool covered wooden bridge that crosses Deadman Creek.  The creek was given its name when police officer Robert J. Rusk was murdered by a Native-American man and his body was dumped in the creek back in 1886.

We continued to follow the trail until it came to a big open area:

For people that hike the loop in the opposite direction of the way we went, look for this sign at the large clearing to find the trail:

At the large clearing we spotted this trail to continue on our loop of Trail #120:

From the clearing the trail begins a steep ascent back up to the ridgeline:

Just a short way up the trail we had a partial view of the summit of Mt. Spokane:

As we continued up the trail we came to a spot that appeared to have been logged in recent years:

This gave me enough space to fly my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom – Drone to get some pictures of the surrounding area. Here is the view looking towards the west:

Here is the view looking north across the valley and Bear Creek Lodge below us:

To the east I was able to get a great picture of Mt. Spokane rising over all the other hills like a monarch ruling his domain:

Here is the view looking south at the ridgeline and the lush forest that Trail #120 passes through:

After flying the drone for a little while we then continued up the trail.  Along the way we saw a lot of these white wildflowers:

We then came upon another obscured view of Mt. Spokane as well:

We soon came to the intersection of Trail #122.  This trail leads back to the trailhead and completes the second loop of this trail:

By this time we were being rained on and in a hurry to get back to the trailhead.  We quickly made our way down Trail #122:

The descent down Trail #122 was only a half mile and we soon found ourselves at the trailhead for Trail #122 which is right across the street from the parking lot:

Conclusion

For anyone looking for a lush forest hike near Spokane, the Mt. Spokane Entrance Double Loop Trail is worth checking out.  The trail is wide and great for kids and the forest is quite beautiful.  The only downside is that there are no clear views of Mt. Spokane during the hike.  That is why I recommend this trail for a cloudy day and just focus on the beauty of the forest.