The Columbia Plateau Trail: The Martin Road Trailhead

Basic Information

• Name: Columbia Plateau Trail, Martin Road Trailhead
• Where: Sprague, Washington
• Distance: 12 miles
• Elevation Gain: 102 feet
• Maximum Elevation:
• Difficulty: Easy
• Time: 3-4 hours
• More Information: Day Hike! Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Sandpoint

Google Earth Map of the Trail

Directions

This hike is located just outside of the small town of Cheney.  To reach the trailhead from Spokane, take I-90 West about 15 miles and then exit onto Highway 904 to Cheney.  Stay on the highway and drive through downtown Cheney.  On the outskirts of Cheney take a left on to Mullinix Road.  Follow this road for about 20 miles and look for the signs leading to the Martin Road where the trailhead.

At the trailhead there is a signboard and restroom facility:

Parking

At the Martin Road trailhead there is a very large parking lot that hardly has anyone ever visiting it because of its remote location.  There is never any issues finding parking here. This trailhead is part of the Columbia Plateau Trail State Park, which means that hikers will need to display a Discover Pass in their windshield in order to park here.

Narrative

I recently decided to explore another section of the Columbia Plateau Trail.  This time I went to hike from the seldom visited Martin Road Trailhead located deep in rural Eastern Washington.  The Columbia Plateau Trail is one of the very popular “Rails-to-Trails” projects in the Pacific Northwest.  What this means is that old railroad beds have been turned into wide and well maintained trails.  From the parking lot I walked over to the trailhead that is marked with this map:

The Columbia Plateau Trail is built on the old Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railroad trackbed that was constructed in 1908.  The line was eventually taken over by the Burlington Northern Railroad who discontinued using the track in 1987.  This opened the door for the state of Washington to take over the property which they did in 1992.  Since then the Washington State Park Service has continued to develop the 130 mile trail that runs from the Tri-Cities area to Fish Lake.  In the Spokane area the section from the Martin Road Trailhead to Fish Lake is maintained and in great shape:

I decided to beat the heat and hike the trail early in the morning.  However, as I hiked up the trail I had the rising sun right in my face as I crossed into Spokane County from Lincoln County shortly after starting the hike:

As I hiked down the trail I noticed different sections where the railroad workers had discarded the scraped away lava rock when constructing the railway.  This is a common sight all along the Columbia Plateau Trail due to the massive lava flows that covered Eastern Washington 5-16 millions year ago:

About 1.5 miles into the hike I crossed over S. Falk Road.  There was no traffic to worry about on this trail since I did not see one person or vehicle the entire hike:

As I continued down the trail, I next came to an area with some small gorges that retained enough moisture for trees to grow in:

It was in this area that I spotted a group of deer that ran across the trail.  Only one of them stopped to look at me before running away, which gave me enough time to quickly take its picture:

I even saw a coyote in this area run across the trail directly in front of me.  He was hiding in the bushes probably hunting rabbits until I came by and startled him.  I caught a picture of him running away in the gorge below me:

This area is littered with small canyons and small lakes is called the Channeled Scablands. The Channeled Scablands was created by cataclysmic floods that occurred during the last Ice Age about 12,000 – 18,000 years ago.  Flood waters from an Ice Age glacial dam in Idaho continuously broke over hundreds of years and flooded Eastern Washington.  These floods cut out the huge canyons known today as Coulees where many large lakes are located.  One of these lakes called Downs Lake can be seen from the trail:

Compared to other coulee lakes in the area Downs Lake is pretty small.  However, not all the little gorges were made by Ice Age floods.  To keep the railway as straight and level as possible the railroad workers cut out sections of the lava rock that created small gorges that the trail now goes through:

After passing through the gorge section I then had some nice views of the large grazing and farming land that surrounds the trail:

At about the 5.5 mile mark the trail crosses over W. Pine Springs Road and once again no signs of traffic:

After crossing the road the trail then began to curve towards Amber Lake where the next trailhead is located at:

As the trail approaches Amber Lake it has a lot more trees around it.  I decided at the six mile mark to turn around instead of continuing another mile to Amber Lake.  I had to make sure I got back in time to go to work.  So I turned around and began walking back to the trailhead.  It was nice to not have the sun directly in my face now:

I made really good time on the way back and soon found myself hiking back into Lincoln County which meant the trailhead was near:

Once I got back to the trailhead I decided to fly my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom – Drone and take a few pictures of the surrounding area.  In the opposite direction from the trailhead, the Columbia Plateau Trail continues deep into the Eastern Washington scablands.  What I found of interest from the air was how the surrounding terrain was stripped of dirt to make the huge railroad embankment:

Even the area around the trailhead was stripped of dirt to make the embankment.  The railway opened in 1908 which means that even after 100 years the terrain has not recovered yet:

The amount of dirt moved and stacked up to create this embankment though was pretty impressive when seen from the air:

Also from the air I was also able to spot to huge oval shaped farm fields who’s green color really stood out in the arid landscape:

Here is a closer look at one of the farm fields and in the distance behind it I could see the forested area where the beautiful Fishtrap Lake is located at:

In this next picture you can see how the Columbia Plateau Trail cuts a straight and narrow path through the lava rock terrain of Eastern Washington:

In this next aerial photograph you can see Downs Lake as well as the channels cut through the terrain by the Ice Age floods thousands of years ago:

Conclusion

For most people hiking the Columbia Plateau Trail from the Martin Road Trailhead is not on their bucket list of things to do in Eastern Washington.  It is a remote location with monotonous dry scablands views to see.  It can also be brutally hot during the summer to hike.  However, a major positive of this section of the trail is that I did find it surprisingly filled with wildlife.  I saw deer, rabbits, a coyote, a garter snake, and many birds.  For people looking to hike a section of the Columbia Plateau Trail, I recommend the Martin Road Trailhead be the last section they check out.