Spokane, WA

A few weeks ago, I found myself driving along Upriver Drive trying to head towards Argonne, and I noticed that there was a good stretch of a nice walking trail between the road and the Spokane River. I discovered via the internet that this was actually a portion of the central segment of the Centennial Trail. I recently decided to take advantage of one of the nice spring days we had and go check out the trail with my husband and our dog.

We found public parking and access to the trail about 1 mile West of Argonne on Upriver Drive. There are a few picnic benches overlooking a beautiful view of the river right in front of the parking lot. There is a sign right at the beginning of the trail to the right letting you know you are at milepost 16 of the trail.

At this point, there are stairs leading down to a small beach area to the left (which I discovered is named Boulder Beach) and to the right is the trail. This beach would be a great place to swim (watch out for currents) or to launch a kayak or canoe. We weren’t interesting in swimming this day, but we still walked down the stairs to take our dog down to the beach because she likes to chase birds and there were a lot of seagulls present. We walked along the beach for a while and eventually met back up with the trail further down.

Walking along this portion of the Centennial Trail offers beautiful views of the river. We passed a few benches along the way that you can sit on and just take in the view. There are also quite a few spots along the way that you can go down to the river itself for a closer view.

Most of the trail winds along through trees and still along the river. There a few spots where the trail begins to run right along side the road. We probably walked a good mile and a half eastward and only encountered one stretch that ran along the road without a barrier. Other segments near the road were safely contained.

Overall, this was a beautiful place for a nice peaceful walk. I love water and being able to walk next to the beautiful Spokane River was really a treat for me. I grew up in Seattle over by the ocean and when I miss the water, I like to find rivers and lakes that will help satisfy my water desire. My favorite part of the walk was when we returned to where we started and I got to see the amazing view. It was definitely nature’s beauty at it’s finest.