Rim Rock Conservation Area, Spokane, WA

Background

On our previous activities on this vacation, I have used this book as a reference for trails in and around Spokane.

But not today!

Earlier this week, after our morning rides, Stephen has taken his bike and gone exploring the area around the hotel, while I have stayed at the hotel resting my knees and writing my travelogue. While he was out riding, he stumbled upon an area called the Rim Rock Conservation Area. (The sign at its entrance calls it "Rim Rock", but the website calls it "Rimrock". Hmmmm.) And in this conservation area are a few easy trails to walk or ride.

Today, it didn't look like a really good hiking or biking day, due to the threatening clouds. Not that I felt like biking today - my knees don't want to bend!

So we figured that this conservation area might work for a bit of a walk - with umbrellas, just in case. It was about a 5 km loop, so we wouldn't be too, too far from the chariot in case the clouds opened. It turned out that about 1.6 kms into the walk, we had to turn around. So we walked just over 3 kms today, half of which was in the rain.

But it was still a nice walk.

The Geography

This is the Google Earth shot of our walk.

This is from our mapping software, which shows more clearly that we were walking at the edge of a big cliff.

The Trail

The trail was tiny gravel. It was pretty flat, too!

A shot of the trail:

Cliffs

Our trail was at the top of a large plateau, right next to some serious cliffs.

Off in the distance, we could see beautiful downtown Spokane.

Flora

Lots of flowers!

Atmosphere

As we returned to the car, in the pouring rain, we saw off in the distance a few hills. With the rain, the view had quite a moody atmosphere.

Tomorrow

We leave Spokane and head to Sandpoint for a few days. If the weather is amenable, Stephen will bike a good portion of the distance between Spokane and Coeur d'Alene - part of the Centennial Trail we rode on a couple of days ago! If not, it will be straight to Sandpoint, where it appears that the weather has been much sunnier!