Spokane is the second largest city in Washington, about 450 kilometres east of Seattle and roughly 30 from the Idaho line, and the first thing to correct is the climate. Readers who know Washington from Seattle pack for drizzle and arrive in a SEMI-ARID inland city that reaches the mid thirties in July, sits below freezing for weeks in winter and gets about half Seattle's rainfall. The second thing is in the photograph: THE SPOKANE RIVER FALLS THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF DOWNTOWN. Not near it, through it, in a series of drops you can stand over on a bridge in the business district, and that is both why the city exists and the best thing about it.
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What Is Here
RIVERFRONT PARK IS A WORLD'S FAIR SITE AND SPOKANE IS THE SMALLEST CITY EVER TO HOST ONE. EXPO 74 was held here on 100 acres of railway yards that had been built directly over the falls, and it was the first World's Fair with an ENVIRONMENTAL THEME. The fair cleared the tracks, the trestles and the depots, uncovered the river, and left the park that now runs through the centre of the city. The GREAT NORTHERN CLOCKTOWER in the third photograph is the one piece of the railway they kept, the 1902 depot's tower left standing on its own when the rest came down.
THE FALLS ARE AT THEIR BIGGEST IN LATE SPRING AND THAT IS WHEN TO COME. Snowmelt from the Idaho panhandle peaks in May and early June and the upper and lower falls run hard enough to be loud and to throw spray onto the bridges. By late August they are a fraction of that. The SKYRIDE gondola runs out over the lower falls, which is the best fifteen dollars in the city.
THE DAVENPORT IS WORTH WALKING INTO EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT STAYING. Opened in 1914, closed and nearly demolished in the 1980s, restored and reopened in 2002, and its lobby is an extraordinary room. The second photograph is the downtown it sits in: brick and terracotta put up fast in the railway and mining boom of the 1890s and 1900s, when Spokane was the supply city for the Coeur d'Alene silver mines.
MANITO PARK IS THE OTHER THING PEOPLE REMEMBER, 90 acres on the South Hill with a Japanese garden, a formal rose garden and conservatories, free to enter.
AND THE PALOUSE IS WHAT SURROUNDS IT. South of the city the land rolls into some of the most productive dryland wheat country on earth, loess hills that look like dunes under crop, and the aerial frames in this library's Spokane set are mostly that rather than the town. If you have a car and a spare afternoon, Steptoe Butte is the viewpoint. BING CROSBY grew up in Spokane and the house is on the Gonzaga campus.
When to Go
Late May and June are the best weeks. The falls are at full volume, the days are long and warm in the low twenties, the lilacs are out in Manito, and the wildfire season has not started.
September is the other good month, warm and dry in the low twenties with the smoke usually clearing, and it is Spokane's most settled weather.
July and August are hot and dry, routinely in the low to mid thirties, occasionally higher, with cool nights because the humidity is low. This is also the smoke season; see the safety section, because it is a genuine planning factor rather than a caveat.
December to February is properly cold, often below freezing all day, with real snow: Spokane averages well over a metre of it a winter and has had far more. Mount Spokane and the resorts in the Idaho panhandle are within an hour, which is why people come.
Getting There
Spokane International is six kilometres west of downtown with good domestic service. Seattle is about four and a half hours by road over Snoqualmie Pass, Coeur d'Alene forty minutes east, Portland about six hours.
The Empire Builder stops here, Amtrak's Chicago to Pacific Northwest train, which splits at Spokane in the middle of the night for Seattle and Portland. It is a reasonable way to arrive and an awkward hour to do it.
Downtown and Riverfront Park are walkable and flat, and the park, the falls, the Davenport and the Spokane Arena are within twenty minutes of each other. A car is wanted for Manito, Mount Spokane and the Palouse.
Note the pass: Snoqualmie on Interstate 90 closes and requires traction devices in winter storms, which is the thing to check before driving over from Seattle between November and March.
The Spokane Packing List
Hot dry summers, hard winters, a large daily temperature swing and wildfire smoke.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women suits this city for the reason that catches people out about dry inland climates: THE DIURNAL SWING IS LARGE. A July day in the mid thirties is followed by a night in the low teens, and a January day below freezing follows a night well under it. Wool is the layer that handles a twenty degree change without being changed.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece across three seasons and under a shell in winter, and from November to February a waterproof insulated parka, because this is a genuine snow city rather than a mild one.
Walking shoes with grip for the park, the bridges and the basalt paths beside the falls, which are wet with spray in spring. From December add insulated waterproof boots, since the pavements are snow and then ice for weeks.
Merino glove liners and a merino beanie from October to April.
Not linked and worth packing: A HEAVYWEIGHT MERINO LAYER IF YOU ARE SKIING RATHER THAN SIGHTSEEING, left unlinked because this post is already at our six link limit and a city visit in winter is short outdoor walks between heated buildings, which the standard layer and the fleece already cover; AN N95 OR KN95 MASK FOR AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, which is the single most useful thing on this list in a smoke year and is not something our affiliate registry carries; LIP BALM AND MOISTURISER, because the humidity here is genuinely low and visitors underestimate it; SUNGLASSES AND HIGH FACTOR SUNSCREEN for a city at 580 metres with clear dry air; AND A WATER BOTTLE, for the same reason.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Spokane
Emergency numbers: 911 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile. Spokane has its own police department and the county a sheriff's office, and the city also runs a 311 line for non-emergency municipal matters. Coverage is good throughout the city and thins in the Palouse and on Mount Spokane.
WILDFIRE SMOKE IS THE REAL SEASONAL RISK AND IT IS NOT A COSMETIC ONE. Eastern Washington, northern Idaho and interior British Columbia all burn in late summer, and because Spokane sits in a basin the smoke settles into it and stays. In a bad year the city loses days or weeks to air quality that is genuinely unhealthy rather than merely hazy, with the worst usually in August and early September, and it arrives with no useful warning because the fires may be hundreds of kilometres away. THE PRACTICAL RESPONSE IS THE SAME ONE BEND AND BOISE NEED: check the air quality on the morning rather than the forecast, carry an N95 if you have any respiratory condition, and treat a smoke day as an indoor day, which in this city means the museum, the Davenport and the galleries. AirNow publishes the hourly index and the Washington Department of Ecology publishes the state smoke forecast. Washington's Department of Natural Resources publishes the fire restrictions and the burn bans, which also close trails and campgrounds at short notice. SUMMER HEAT reaches the mid thirties with very low humidity, which is the dangerous combination because the sweat is gone before it is felt, and the 2021 heat dome pushed this city past 42 degrees. WINTER IS THE OTHER END: lying snow for weeks, ice on steep South Hill streets, and the commonest visitor injury is a fall. THE RIVER IS COLD AND FAST AND IT IS NOT SWIMMING WATER anywhere near the falls, where the current above a drop is the hazard rather than the drop; there are drownings on this river most years, usually above the falls and usually involving alcohol. The National Weather Service office in Spokane issues the heat, smoke, winter storm and flood warnings for the whole Inland Northwest and is the single authority to follow here.
US State Department travel advisory: there is none, and this is not an omission. The State Department issues travel advisories for other countries, not for the United States itself, so no US advisory for this destination exists to link. In its place, the Government of Canada advice for the United States gives an equivalent third-country assessment.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits. The FCDO names no advised-against areas anywhere in the United States. The same advice also covers Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Main hospital: Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane is the region's largest hospital and trauma centre, with MultiCare Deaconess also downtown, and between them they serve a catchment that reaches into Idaho and Montana. That is unusually good provision and it is the quiet advantage of Spokane over anywhere else in the Inland Northwest: a serious problem in the Palouse or the panhandle means a drive, and here it means a short taxi. Urgent care clinics are widespread. Dial 911 for any emergency. This is the single biggest practical difference for a visitor: there is no public health system, an emergency room visit without insurance can run into thousands of dollars, and an ambulance is billed separately and is not free. Comprehensive travel insurance with a high medical limit is not optional in the United States, and you should carry your policy number and the insurer's 24 hour number somewhere you can reach them. Urgent care clinics handle anything short of an emergency far more cheaply and quickly than an emergency room, and are the right choice for a sprain, an infection or stitches.
Official health authority: the CDC travellers' health pages, the US federal health authority for visitors. covers the national health information service and travel health guidance
Embassy contact: the United States is the host country, so there is no US embassy to contact. Your own country's embassy is in Washington DC, with consulates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Miami and Boston. Find yours before you travel and save the number.
Official tourism authority: Brand USA, the national tourism marketing body. covers the Pacific Northwest, and Visit Spokane publishes the Riverfront Park and Skyride hours, the falls flow season and the festival calendar
Takeaways
This is semi-arid, not Seattle. Half the rain, hotter summers, a real winter.
Come in late May or June. The falls run on snowmelt and are a fraction of that by August.
Check the air quality in August and September. Smoke closes the city in a bad year.
Riverfront Park is a World's Fair site. The clocktower is all that was kept of the depot.
Solo women safety assessment: Spokane is a straightforward place to travel alone. It is a mid-sized American city with a walkable flat downtown, two universities, a park running through the middle of it, and a visitor economy of the falls, the gardens and the museums; eating alone is completely ordinary and the park and the central streets are busy into the evening. The sensible cautions are the ordinary urban ones: the area immediately around the bus plaza and parts of East Sprague are where the city's street homelessness and drug problems are concentrated and are worth avoiding late rather than treating as dangerous by day, and petty theft from parked cars is the commonest property crime, so leave nothing visible, particularly at trailheads. THE REAL RISKS HERE ARE ENVIRONMENTAL. Wildfire smoke settles into this basin in August and September and can be genuinely unhealthy for days at a time with no advance warning, so check the hourly air quality rather than the forecast and carry an N95 if you have any respiratory condition. Summer heat reaches the mid thirties at very low humidity, which dehydrates faster than it feels, and the 2021 heat dome took this city past 42 degrees. Winter brings weeks of lying snow and ice, and a fall on a South Hill street is the likeliest way to get hurt here. The river is cold and fast and is not swimming water anywhere near the falls, where the current above a drop kills people most years. 911 WORKS AND SPOKANE HAS THE LARGEST TRAUMA CENTRE BETWEEN SEATTLE AND MINNEAPOLIS.
Reading On
Spokane is the capital of the Inland Northwest and this library covers the region on both sides of the Cascades. The Seattle packing list covers the city four and a half hours west over the pass, which is the climate this one is constantly mistaken for. For the dry side, the Bend packing list and Boise packing list cover the two other high desert cities that lose weeks to the same wildfire smoke, and the Salt Lake City packing list the Wasatch. West and south, the Portland packing list, Newport packing list and Crater Lake packing list cover Oregon, and the Olympic packing list the rainforest peninsula. North and east, the Glacier packing list covers the Montana park and the Yellowstone packing list the one beyond it. For the country, the USA travel guide for women carries the regions, the driving and the seasons in full. For why wool handles a twenty degree daily swing, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection. Across the Cascades, the Tacoma packing list covers the port city on Puget Sound and the lahar sirens it tests every month.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
