Even with shorter days and falling temperatures, the Spokane region is rich in natural beauty, and whether you’re looking for vibrant colors, or more of a winter-wonderland atmosphere, there’s something for every hiking aficionado. Here are a few of my favorite local late-season hikes. 

James P. Slavin Conservation Area – Nature Park Loop – 2.4 miles 

Located just south of Spokane, this trail covers a range of landscapes, from forests to wetlands to prairie. Birdwatchers can glimpse a range migrating wildfowl, including Canada geese and sandhill cranes, and the wide-open horizon captures the sweeping grandeur of the neighboring Palouse. A great trail for older hikers and families with kids. 

Antoine Peak Conservation Area – Antoine Peak Loop – 4.8 miles 

This trail takes hikers up through dense woodlands, culminating in views of the Dishman Hills, Mount Spokane, Mica Peak, and even northern Idaho. Deer sightings are common this time of year, and the summit of this trail offers a visual feast of snow-capped hills and autumn hues. A must for any hiker craving a bit of solitude. 

Mount Spokane State Park – Trail 120 Loop – 2.5 miles 

Hidden in the shadow of Mount Spokane, this hike is more approachable than some others in the area, though trekking poles and good footwear are still recommended. This trail boasts old growth stands of western larch, whose needles turn gold in the fall, bathing the understory in a dreamy light. Coupled with amazing views of Mt. Kit Carson, this hike is bright, brilliant, and perfect for sunny days. This hike may turn into a snowshoe depending on the fall weather. Trail 120 starts across the road from Bear Creek Lodge. A fee is charged by the lodge owner for parking. 

Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge – Pine Lake / Headquarters Loop – 1.7 miles 

Situated just east of Cheney, a 20-minute drive from Spokane, Turnbull boasts an extensive network of trails that are well maintained and relatively level, with a broad array of natural wonders to behold. Of particular note is Winslow Pool—a major visual feature of the park, a survey site for Eastern Washington’s Biology department, and a haven for amateur birdwatchers.  

Columbia Plateau Trail – Cheney to Fish Lake – 7.6 miles (out and back) 

Though easily the longest of the trails on this list, it is also one of the most approachable. This hike is part of the Columbia Plateau Trail, which spans 130 miles from Pasco to Cheney, covering much of the south-central part of the state. Its key features include well-paved and bike-friendly paths, numerous scientific displays detailing the regions geological history, and a serene view of Fish Lake. 

Coeur d’Alene – Tubbs Hill Main Trail – 2.5 miles 

While a common misconception holds that the best hikes lie far off the path, many lie tantalizingly close to town. Tubbs Hill, for just one example, presents an appealing option for hikers in Spokane or North Idaho alike. Situated on 130 acres of public land, Tubbs Hill is a popular woodland oasis in the heart of downtown Coeur d’Alene. It boasts well marked trails, accessible terrain, and stone’s-throw proximity to Coeur d’Alene’s numerous dining and shopping opportunities. Best of all, wintertime hikers will find no more stunning view of Lake Coeur d’Alene and its surrounding forests than on a crisp winter morning or in the midst of a gentle snowfall. 

Originally published as “6 Fall & Early Winter Spokane & CDA Hikes” in the Nov.-Dec. 2020 double issue.

Seth Marlin holds a Creative Writing MFA from Eastern Washington University. He is the author of “Five-Star Trails: Spokane,” out now through Menasha Ridge Press. 

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To help you make the most of your outdoor time and keep things fresh during the pandemic, the faculty of Eastern Washington University’s Recreation and Leisure Services Program in partnership with Out There Venture has created the SPOvid-19 Local Adventure Series.

Episode 2 – Hiking the Stubblefield Trail at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge

Our second adventure is a family-friendly visit to the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (TNWF), located 6 miles south of Cheney, Washington, to hike through the Channeled Scablands on the Stubblefield Trail. Currently, the entrance gate is closed as well as all facilities; however, the trails of Turnbull are open for your enjoyment, and no entrance fee required.

When you arrive at Turnbull, park in the area ahead of the gate. The gate restricts access for cars, but bike and foot traffic are allowed to enter the property. Just past the gate you will find a wide, gravel road, perfect for activity while practicing social distancing. If you are looking for an adventure, follow the road approximately 2 miles to the Stubblefield Trail—about a six-mile loop through a mix of landscapes, including basalt outcrops, wetlands, and ponderosa pine forest. Bird life is abundant. At the halfway point you’ll find Stubblefield Lake. Be sure to stay on the trail and keep dogs leashed and pick up after them. 

The Stubblefield Trail is definitely a worthy adventure. For more information: Turnbull NWR homepage.

Chris Cindric is a Senior Lecturer of Recreation and Leisure Services at Eastern Washington University where he teaches and advises a minor in experiential education and manages the EWU Challenge Course Program. He lives in Cheney with his wife, four children, and dog. 

Bonus video: Running the Turnbull Auto Loop in winter

SPOvid-19 Local Adventure Episode 1 – Run Bloomsday

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Enter at the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge main gate, 4 miles south of Cheney on S. Cheney Plaza Road (free Nov. 1-Feb. 28; March 31-Oct. 31, $3 per day or use various annual National Wildlife Refuge/Parks passes). Drive approximately 1 mile in and park at the paved lot with toilets (check Turnbull’s website for possible coronavirus-related bathroom and other facility closure updates). Both of these hikes or runs leave from here. 

Pine Lake Trail/Stubblefield Trail (1.3-5 miles)

Directly across from the bathroom, follow the paved Pine Lake Trail alongside Winslow Pool and around Middle Pine Lake. This is the best place in the refuge for spotting swans, and the music of numerous songbirds fills the air above the cattails from early spring through late fall. This loop trail is 1.3 miles of level terrain. To add out-and-back distance to this loop, leave the paved trail onto the dirt two track near the far side of Middle Pine Lake. This dirt two track soon comes to a T-junction; take the right. This two track soon comes to a Y junction and a sign for Stubblefield Trail. Take the left uphill into the prairie for longer-range views and spring wildflowers. 

Auto Tour Route (6-12+ miles)

From the parking lot, run back towards the refuge entrance. Take the first right to run the Auto Tour Route loop dirt road clockwise (cars go counterclockwise and are very infrequent). This loop passes numerous wetlands, ponds, and little lakes. From the parking lot around the loop and back is 6 miles of level terrain. Watch for moose, fox, coyotes, ducks, muskrats, and numerous migratory waterfowl. There are clean, year-round toilets every 1.5 to 2 miles (check Turnbull’s website for closure updates). Because of the toilets, level terrain, relative solitude, varied scenery, and accessibility to auto support from friends and family, this loop is ideal for long-distance training or even personal long-distance events at six miles per lap. Five laps plus one around Pine Lake Trail makes a fine 50K, for example.  

Cautions: Moose can be dangerous and should not be approached. Ticks are numerous in the spring and early summer; use insect repellant and stay on the wide, dirt road Auto Tour Route (toward the middle, away from grass and shrubs) during tick season.

Read Jonathan Johnson’s essay about running the trails of Turnbull.

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I have never written about running before because I run not to be but to leave myself. I have written precious little about my Zen Buddhism for the same reason. If the point of both practices is to free myself from the thoughts and feelings that make me me, what is there to say?  

Paradoxically, though, I have recently begun to discover that when I return to myself from either practice, I sometimes find a few words in my head, lingering residue from someplace not me. Like dried mud on my running shoes. Like the smell of incense in my black Zen clothes.  

The desire to leave oneself seems to be pretty common among poets across cultures and epochs. As does the role of wildlife in that pursuit. One April night 201 years ago, the English poet John Keats followed a nightingale’s song through the dark. He returned with the words “Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget, / What thou among the leaves hast never known, / The weariness, the fever, and the fret.” 1,100 years ago an anonymous Japanese poet followed a nightingale’s song and returned with the words “you too have passed through this world” and “forgetting even who you are.” 

The Zen temple where I have practiced for 20 years and the Zen priest whom I have known since I was 4 are far away. I have them only a few months a year. Fortunately, I live the rest of the year a mile from the edge of 18,000 acres of the pine forest, wetlands, and little lakes of Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge in western Spokane County.  

Every year I run at least one marathon or ultramarathon, and the dirt roads and trails of Turnbull are where I do most of my training, usually three or four times a week. Forgetting myself comes easier in country free of the distractions of traffic and curbs and human noise. On my 40th birthday, I ran 40 miles, much of it in Turnbull. On my 50th I switched to kilometers and again ran my age, all of that in the refuge. As with Zen, the great majority of my Turnbull running time my mind swirls with clouds of thought and feeling. But for passing moments that mental weather of selfhood clears. I fade, dissolve, forgetting even who I am. Which came in particularly handy on those big mortal-awareness-inducing birthdays.  

The other beings I encounter in Turnbull are rarely human. No nightingales either. But I’ve had the company of ducks and songbirds, snow-diving foxes, coyotes, and many moose, including a bull, the dark, enormous side of which I nearly smacked into as I ran head-down, exhausted in the dusk. Once I found—or perhaps more accurately, lost—myself in the middle of a moving heard of elk that parted around me, indifferent as a river, as I stopped running and stood still, like a river stone. 

And geese.  

“We have a soul at times,” writes the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska. “No one’s got it non-stop, / for keeps.”  Whatever my elusive soul might be, I feel it close when I return from the self-erasure of Zen or running. Especially when the residue of words that returns with me is mingled with the voices of passing geese. In an intimate, wooded stretch just past Turnbull’s West Blackhorse Lake, I heard them before I saw them. Then:  

flying over the pair of geese are briefly embodied / low autumn sun silvers / with every downstroke /the underside of one’s wing / as they trade oie for oie  

Something not Jonathan Johnson, whatever that is, answered:  

I who cannot call myself / a believer call up to them / loud enough that they / might hear Good Morning! / softer Godspeed as they pass / back into the / everything   unseen beyond the pines 

When you emerge from zazen—sitting meditation—the first words you chant—in chorus with the priest and other practitioners—are “Great robe of liberation. Virtuous field far beyond form and emptiness.”  

The words I find on my Turnbull runs are, literally, my own. Of course they are. But they feel more like those ancient words of the Zen chant, residue from a grace somewhere far beyond me.  

Jonathan Johnson is the author of five books, most recently the memoir “The Desk on the Sea” (2019) and the poetry collection “May Is an Island” (2018). A former wilderness guide, he is now a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Eastern Washington University. 

Where to Go: Hiking & Running Trails in Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge

Further Reading: Raising a Kid as an Outdoor Family – a Q&A interview with Jonathan Johnson and his wife, Amy Howko.

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It took me two tries to complete the 130-miles of the Columbia Plateau Trail (CPT), officially named the Columbia Plateau Trail State Park. The first time, we rode the former rail line turned trail about one-third of the way before bailing in the tiny town of Benge, Wash. Our first mistake: we picked the wrong direction and rode straight west into a 20-30 mph headwind. And then our second, bigger error was not having the right bikes for the job. Our 2” mountain bike tires weren’t up for the task of plowing through the thick, loose chunks of railroad ballast rock that litter the nearly 100-mile, middle section of the trail.

A few years later, we were back for a second try on fat bikes with 4-inch, ballast-rock busting tires headed in the right direction: uphill but with the wind at our backs from Pasco to Spokane. 

Day 1: Pasco to Kahlotus

The first 15 miles of our early-spring trip flew by with excellent crushed-gravel conditions along the Snake River. Once at the Snake River Junction, riders have two options for avoiding 4 gated trestles that require a detour. For fewer surprises ride the paved highway east to Windust Park on the river where you’ll find camping, water, and restrooms (if they are open). A more adventurous option, at least when we rode the route in 2016, is to leave the CPT and ride another abandoned railroad line closer to the river that involved some boulder dodging and Russian thistle wading. At Windust Park we filled our water bottles (you might also be able to get water at a nearby farm) and left the river, climbing up the CPT to our first camp near Devils Canyon and the town of Kahlotus.

Day 2: Kahlotus to Middle of Nowhere

Dramatic desert scenery gives way to a slow crawl over chunky ballast rock on a long, straight stretch of relatively uninteresting trail between Kahlotus (water stop) and Washtucna, which at the time had an inviting café and watering hole. Another closed trestle blocks riders just to the west of Washtucna (a farm access road and short hike-a-bike regain access to the trail on its north side). Then it’s onward through a long stretch of rough ballast rock riding. Beautiful basalt formations; massive sagebrush; and wildlife sightings including mule deer, rattlesnakes, and badger help keep your mind off of the challenging trail conditions. Another blocked trestle after an hour or two of riding warrants abandoning the CPT again. Use your maps to detour around the private land surrounding the closed trestle on roads. Trespassing is illegal and could jeopardize the future of the trail for others. 

Legal camping and access to drinking water east of Washtucna can be challenging. Plan on stocking up on provisions for this long stretch through the middle of nowhere. You should be able to find water at the church in Benge (and possible camping in town if you ask). You can also ask for water at the grain elevators in Lamont. Despite the fact that there are some nice camping spots next to the trail, camping along the CPT isn’t allowed. You can, however, find in-town camping options as well as legal camping on BLM land at Escure Ranch and Fishtrap Lake. The town of Sprague a few miles off the CPT also offers services as varied as a store, bar, café, and motel if you’re looking for the comforts of home.

Day 3: Middle of Nowhere to Spokane

For the last stretch of ballast rock riding, you may run into swamp-like conditions west of Lamont. To keep your shoes dry, leave the CPT and pedal the highway into Lamont where you can regain the trail at the grain elevators. Once you’ve reached Martin Road Trailhead, in addition to being treated to an outhouse, your ballast rock biking experience is over, and it’s smooth sailing on crushed gravel surface through Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge to Cheney. Continue on the paved section of the CPT to Fish Lake, where a few miles of road riding will connect you back off-highway on the paved Fish Lake Trail all the way into Spokane.

Planning Your CPT Ride

If you plan to ride the trail point to point, this article isn’t close to a sufficient guide to the trail. Do your own online research, procure maps, and be prepared for the unknown and some adventure. You will need to be self-sufficient and carry all the gear, food and water, first aid, and tools you might need.

For a more relaxed and less demanding experience, explore the Columbia Plateau Trail in more pleasant sections on day-rides from the developed trailheads or towns. For more info, visit the Washington State Parks Columbia Plateau Trail page.

[All photos by Derrick Knowles]

For more inspiring stories, visit the OTO archives for stories about the Columbia Plateau Trail and bikepacking.

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Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge and Spokane Audubon Society will host a community work party on Saturday, October 16. This is part of an ongoing community effort to restore native riparian habitat to benefit birds and other wildlife species. We have hundreds of native saplings to plant, and fencing to build at the project site to protect the trees from deer, elk, and moose browsing. Everyone is welcome!

Attention Groups: Please call in advance to register. It helps us in our planning if we know how many are coming. The Refuge will also host a “potluck” lunch. Please feel free to bring your favorite dish. Ask for Sandy.

When: Saturday, October, 16 2010.

Planting Time: 9 am to 12 p.m.

Lunch: Potluck 12 p.m.

Where: Turnbull NWR Headquarters, 5 miles south of Cheney on Cheney-Plaza Road: turn left on Smith Road and drive 2 miles on gravel road to headquarters.

Clothing: Long-sleeved shirt, work pants, sturdy boots or shoes, gloves.

Equipment: (if you can) pliers, shovels

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