Hikes in Washington: The Quartz Mountain Trail

Basic Information

• Name: Quartz Mountain Trail
• Where: Mt. Spokane State Park, Washington
• Distance: 6 miles
• Elevation Gain: 938 feet
• Maximum Elevation: 5,187 feet
• Total Time: 4-5 hours
• Difficulty: Easy
• More Information: Day Hike! Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Sandpoint

Google Earth Map of the Trail

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 is located deep into the park at the intersection where a left leads to the summit of Mt. Spokane.  Instead make a right here onto the dirt road that leads to the trailhead.  This dirt road area is also a parking area for other trails in the area and has a restroom facility here if you need it:

Drive past this restroom facility and follow the snowshoe signs to the Selkirk Lodge where the trailhead is located at.  The Selkirk Lodge is where cross country ski and snowshoe rentals are made during the winter time:

Inside of the lodge there are various picnic tables, but it is closed during the summer season:

Parking

he parking lot in front of the Selkirk Lodge is huge and there will be no issues finding parking here for hiking.

Narrative

My son is a big fan of collecting rocks and he often uses our hiking trips to bring home new rock samples that he finds.  When I read about the old quartz mine on the appropriately named, Quartz Mountain I knew I was going to have to take him on a hike there.  For the Fourth of July holiday, my son plus my daughter and I loaded up the truck and made the drive over to Mt. Spokane State Park to conduct this hike.  At the trailhead we were greeted by a great view of the summit of the 5,883 foot Mt. Spokane:

At the trailhead near the Selkirk Lodge there is a huge trail map that depicts the various routes around the Mt. Spokane Cross Country Ski Park:

The route to Quartz Mountain is a choose-your-own-adventure type of hike due to all the various trails that lead to the mountain.  I let my kids choose which trail they wanted to take to the mountain.  They first decided to hike the Bear Grass Trail:

Due to these routes being used for cross country skiing, the trails are extremely wide and easy to follow:

There were not as many wildflowers in bloom as there were earlier in the summer, but there was still plenty of these white flowers to see along the trail:

After a little less than a mile the trail came to a wide meadow called Junction #1 where we had to choose another trail to keep traveling south on:

Each junction is conveniently marked with trail signs making it very difficult to get lost:

From Junction #1 my kids decided to take the Blue Jay Trail:

After about 1.5 miles of hiking we came to Junction #2 and had to yet again choose which trail we wanted to hike on next:

Here we chose the Silver Trail which hugged the side of the ridgeline.  We were hoping it would have some views, but it did not due to the thick tree cover:

The Silver Trail makes a small; ascent as it heads to its next destination the Nova Hut:

When we reached the Nova Hut it was locked up just like the Selkirk Lodge:

Near the Nova Hut there is a nice restroom facility that was also locked up:

At the Nova Hut we saw a sign for Quartz Mountain.  This trail travels around the mountain before intersecting with a trail that leads to its summit:

However, this is not the most direct way to Quartz Mountain.  Just a short distance passed the restroom facility there is the Lookout Trail that leads directly to the summit of Quartz Mountain.  Take this trail if you are trying to hike the shortest route possible:

My kids wanted more of a challenge and decided to take the Quartz Mountain route.  After about a half mile of hiking, we reached the intersection with the trail that ascends to the summit of Quartz Mountain.  We made a left here and immediately started ascending:

Since this trail does not see many hikers, we found that is was overgrown in many areas:

Towards the end of the trail we found a small clearing that gave us our first signs of the Quartz Mine:

My son stopped and started cracking open the quartz rocks trying to find his favorite samples to bring home:

Just above the clearing we walked into a huge quartz mine.  There was quartz rocks all over the place that my kids had fun checking out:

While they were checking out the rocks, I took out my my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom – Drone and took some photos of the surrounding area.  Here is what the quartz mine looks like from above:

Here is the view I had of Mt. Spokane to the north:

To the east I could see the lookout tower that sits on the summit of Quartz Mountain and above another old quartz mine:

Here is a closer look at the lookout tower:

To the southeast I could see Twin Lakes over in Idaho:

To the south I could see Hauser Lake (left) which is in Idaho and Newman Lake (right) which is in Washington with Mica Peak in the distant background.  The cities of Post Falls, Idaho and Spokane Valley, Washington sit in the valley below:

To the west I could see where the plains meets the mountains:

We spent about 45 minutes at the quartz mine before deciding to hike up to the lookout tower above us.  From the quartz mine we had the choice of just following a dirt road up to the lookout tower or taking a walk path:

We decided to take the walking path that ascends to the summit through a thick pine forest:

We soon popped up on the summit where we could see the lookout tower and restroom facility in front of us:

What is really awesome about this lookout tower is that it can be rented during the non-winter months.  I actually wanted to do this, but like many things in 2020, the tower has been shutdown for the year due to coronavirus fears:

The lookout tower was locked up, but we could look inside and see that it had two beds and a non-potable water tank:

It also had a table, chairs, and small gas stove:

Ironically the best views were not from the lookout tower, but instead at a viewpoint located a short walk down the dirt road:

At the viewpoint is the largest quartz rock we had seen all day:

Here is a panorama picture of the scenery from the viewpoint:

The viewpoint gave an especially good look at Newman Lake.  My kids and I had hiked the Turtle Rock Trail adjacent to Newman Lake a few weeks prior:

While my kids ate snacks and looked for rock samples, I took out my drone once again to take a few more pictures of the area.  Here is what the lookout tower looks like from above:

Here is the view to the north looking at Mt. Spokane.  On the bottom left of the image you can see the roof of the Nova Hut:

Here is the view looking southeast towards what is called the Ragged Ridge:

After spending about an hour on the summit we took one last look at the tower and started to hike back down the mountain:

This time we took the more direct dirt road back to Nova Hut.  From the road we had a nice view of the rugged mountains of Northern Idaho:

From the Nova Hut we took the Lodgepole Trail, which is a dirt road back to Junction #2:

From Junction #2 we took the Sam’s Swoop Trail back to Junction #1:

The hike back was a quick one since it was mostly all down hill.  We really enjoyed walking through the beautiful forest:

We also enjoyed seeing all these white flowers around the trail as well:

About 6 hours later we found ourselves back at the trailhead looking at the summit of Mt. Spokane:

Conclusion

The Quartz Mountain Trail is a must do hike in the Spokane region.  I liked the choose-your-own-adventure aspect of the trail.  The multiple trails to the summit allowed my kids to decide how they wanted to hike this mountain.  Our route was a little bit longer than the traditional route, but they had a great time none the less.  My kids also enjoyed looking for rock samples in the old quartz mine and checking out the lookout tower on the mountain’s summit.  It was truly a memorable hike that I hope to repeat sometime in the future combined with renting out the lookout tower when it reopens.