Spokane is home to many urban wilds. No matter where in Spokane you live, chances are there is a wild-ish natural area near you to explore. Combining urban neighborhoods with these special, scenic places makes for one of the most unique and satisfying hiking experiences imaginable.

And with the right guide to point out everything from native plants and geographical features to historic sites and buildings, it can be even better. This was the idea behind the urban walking tours and my business, Wander Spokane, as well as my desire to become a tour guide. These local tours can’t be repeated anywhere else because they are tied to this unique place.

This summer, get out there to explore on your own or with a Wander Spokane guided tour and see some of Spokane’s lesser-known urban wilds.

Coeur d’Alene Park & Browne’s Addition Neighborhood History

A great starting point is on the corner of Second Avenue and Hemlock at Spokane’s oldest park, Coeur d’Alene Park. The beautiful gazebo in the center of the park was built in 1896 and has been a gathering place for Spokanites for over 120 years. The land for the park was donated after the great fire of 1889 by J.J. Browne and A.M. Cannon as a way of promoting building in the area.

Most homes in this neighborhood reflect the era in which they were built. This was an enclave for the elite who made most of their money in the railway and mining industries.

Overlook Park & Latah Valley Views

Walking west down Second Avenue toward Overlook Park you will pass many homes ranging from the Patsy Clark Mansion (1897) to the Gibbs-Murphy house, the oldest in the neighborhood (1883). Taking in the view of the Hangman Creek valley, directly below you is High Bridge Park located along the banks of the creek.

Take time to read the few signs at the top of the hill that tell some tales of the past. To the south you’ll notice some beautiful bridges, including the Sunset Highway bridge. Downstream you’ll see remnants of old trusses both in the water and on land.

High Bridge Park Walk along the Creek

Starting down the trail to Latah Creek below are plenty of plants, many native to the area. My favorite time to view them is late spring/early summer. Probably the most well-known is the arrowleaf balsamroot that resembles a wild sunflower. Ponderosa pines line the trail and the creek, as well as yarrow, ocean spray, and Douglas fir, all with edible and medicinal uses.

At the bottom of the trail you reach the creek, known by one of two names—Hangman Creek or Latah Creek, depending on who you ask. (In 1858 Col. George Wright had several Native Americans hanged in this valley, hence the name discrepancy).

At this point the pulse of the city is out of sight, and the sound of the water and birds take over.

People’s Park & the Confluence

Follow the creek north to the Spokane River and the confluence with Latah Creek, a special place to members of the Spokane Tribe and other Native Americans. The river and creek provided Native American inhabitants with salmon and other fish for thousands of years before dams downstream cut off their migration from the Pacific Ocean.

More recently, the natural area surrounding the confluence of the Spokane River and Latah Creek is known as People’s Park. This area has several trails an array of beautiful plants and a “colorful” story.

During Spokane’s Expo ’74, this area was set up for free camping and soon became its own little community. After the fair ended, it became a place for peace, love, and nude beaches.

Peaceful Valley

Turning back east along the south bank of the Spokane River, walk along the newly paved path toward the Peaceful Valley neighborhood, following the river where you can still hear the raging waters below during spring runoff. Follow the path to Main Street and you will find yourself in my favorite neighborhoods.

Peaceful Valley went by many names in its lifetime: Poverty Flats and Spring Flats to name a few. There are many interesting and historical homes in this neighborhood, including the Pietsch House, Groshoff Apartments, and the Cowley School.

An unusual feature found in this neighborhood is a series of row cabins. Our hike ends at Redband Park, formerly known as Glover Field. The park was renamed after the redband trout, a native fish to the Spokane River that, along with the salmon, was crucial to the Indigenous inhabitants of the area.

The views from Redband Park are amazing, especially from the field looking toward downtown with the power of the river meeting the gorgeous architecture and cityscape.

For more information about urban tours of Spokane and Wander Spokane, visit Wanderspokane.com.

Find more urban recreation and adventure ideas in the Urban Outdoors column archives.

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These trout are also adaptable to a range of conditions and can be found growing up to 24 inches in the deep waters of Lake Roosevelt and 4-5 inches in smaller headwater such as those flowing into Hangman (Latah) Creek. Along the Spokane River there can be as many as 300 fish per mile, but in some Idaho rivers their numbers can be as high as 3,000 fish per mile.

It isn’t always easy to tell a redband from coastal rainbow trout varieties, especially if it is at the end of a fly line. Even fish biologists Casey Flanagan and Conor Giorgi who work for the Spokane Tribe have trouble at times. But there are some ways to tell them apart.

Flanagan says in the Spokane area, hatchery trout, which are coastal rainbow varieties, will have a clipped adipose fin (a small fin along the back). Redband can also have some distinctive coloration including the namesake red lateral band as well as large rounded spots. Flanagan and Giorgi say those marks become more distinctive in populations that live in smaller streams. But when Flanagan wants to be absolutely sure she uses genetic markers.

Redband Face a Variety of Challenges

Although redband live in a variety of river habitats, their population numbers can be limited by degraded streamside habitat, increases in water temperature, as well as competition and predation from non-native fish.

The Spokane River by Sandifur Bridge near downtown Spokane is a year-round stronghold for redband and is an important nesting area where fish dig depressions in the gravel called reds to layer their eggs. Redbands struggle on other stretches of the Spokane such as those downstream of the Post Falls Dam where they are preyed on by the non-native popular game fish, small mouth bass.

The watershed of the Little Spokane River with its cold spring-fed waters and healthy riparian habitat has a healthy population of redband. Whereas some tributaries of Hangman Creek, on the other hand, have lower population numbers due to warm, seasonal water temperatures and frequent fine sediment erosion from surrounding agricultural land. This fine sediment covers up the larger gravel that the trout use to make their reds.

Conservation Collaboration

There are many collaborative conservation efforts in the region. The Spokane Tribe, Confederated Colville Tribes, and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) collect and share similar data. Groups like the Spokane River Forum and the Spokane Riverkeeper are putting up education signage and working to protect water quality.

The EPA, Department of Ecology, tribes and WDFW are working on habitat restoration, including removing fish barriers in the Little Spokane watershed and restoring meanders and streamside habitat to the headwaters of Hangman Creek. Several county conservation districts are also encouraging landowners to opt into a voluntary stewardship program to protect their riparian habitat.

With clean water and intact, healthy habitat, redband trout can thrive in rivers and streams here in the Inland Northwest, allowing them to play their natural role in our aquatic ecosystems and anglers and nature lovers the chance so catch or see this magnificent fish.

As the weather warms up you can find Adam floating the Spokane in canoe, packraft, inner tube, or along with any friend with room on their fly-fishing raft. He last wrote about a close encounter with a woodpecker.

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