Spokane

The Spokane people call themselves snxʍmeneʔ, which translates to “steelhead,” after the fish; the more commonly heard translation, “sun people,” is the popular version but not the tribe's own word for itself. Spokane territory once stretched across roughly three million acres of what's now eastern Washington and northern Idaho, and today the tribe governs a reservation of about 237 square miles headquartered in Wellpinit. The city itself incorporated as Spokane Falls on November 29, 1881, and reincorporated under the shorter name in 1891.

On August 4, 1889, a fire tore through downtown and destroyed 32 blocks of the commercial core, killing one person. Among the people who rebuilt from nothing was 20-year-old Louis Davenport, who'd arrived from Nebraska that spring; after the fire wiped out the restaurant he was working in, he bought a tent and opened “Davenport's Waffle Foundry” just days later. That tent eventually became the Davenport Hotel, and Spokane spent the next century rebuilding a downtown that could survive worse than a fire.

The city's signature reinvention came a century later. Expo '74 (see the hook above) left behind the 100-acre Riverfront Park, and the Davenport Hotel — which opened in 1914 with air conditioning, a central vacuum system and a pipe organ, and was once nicknamed “Spokane's living room” — nearly went the other way. It closed in 1985 and faced demolition before Walt and Karen Worthy bought it in 2000 for $6.5 million, spent $38 million restoring it, and reopened it in 2002. Between the park and the hotel, Spokane has now saved the same downtown twice.

Riverfront Park is the direct legacy of Expo '74: 100 acres along the Spokane River, right where the fairgrounds used to be, open daily from 6 a.m. to midnight at 507 N Howard Street. Inside it, the strangest thing you'll find is the Garbage Goat, a 200-pound corten-steel sculpture built in 1974 by Sister Paula Mary Turnbull — known locally as “the welding nun” — with an internal vacuum that lets visitors feed it litter through a tube in its mouth. By its 40th birthday in 2014, it had “eaten” more than 14,000 cubic yards of trash.

*Fees subject to change, please check my.spokanecity.org for updated information.

Frank's Diner serves downtown at 1516 West 2nd Avenue from a vintage railcar. The diner's own site says Barney-Smith built the car in 1906 as an “observation car,” which the Northern Pacific Railroad remodeled as a private car for its president; the diner operated in Seattle from 1931 until 1991, when the car was moved to Spokane. The site lists hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily; check it before planning around them.

Washington State Parks describes the summer trails of Mount Spokane State Park as running through subalpine meadows filled with huckleberries, and calls them “a local favorite.” Across the state line, the U.S. Forest Service calls huckleberries “a prized wild food” on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, where picking for personal use is allowed and commercial gathering is not; it says the berries ripen at higher elevations later in the summer than at lower ones. Which Spokane restaurants, bakeries or bars carry huckleberry items could not be confirmed from an official source, so check a business's own site before planning a meal around them. Ask at the local ranger station about closures or restrictions before picking.

22 breweries within 10 miles of Spokane, 4 of them brewpubs with a kitchen.

Brewpub locations from Open Brewery DB (MIT)

4 more Highway Heads places lie within about 180 miles of Spokane in a straight line — far enough that most are a night away rather than an afternoon.

• Coeur d'AleneIdahoabout 30 mi
• WallaceIdahoabout 70 mi
• KalispellMontanaabout 150 mi
• LeavenworthWashingtonabout 150 mi

A full day covers Riverfront Park and downtown comfortably; add a half-day if you want Manito Park and the Browne's Addition mansions unrushed.

If you're here the last weekend of June, plan around Hoopfest. Started in 1990, it's grown into the largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world — more than 6,000 teams, roughly 25,000 players, on 450+ courts across 45 downtown blocks. Hotels book up and parking gets tight.

The first Sunday in May is Bloomsday, a 12-kilometer run through downtown started in 1977 by Olympic runner Don Kardong; it once drew more than 61,000 registrants in a single year. Same warning applies: book ahead if your trip lands on race weekend.

Spokane has four distinguishable seasons, more so than western Washington, according to the City of Spokane, which puts the area at an average of 16.5 inches of annual precipitation and 48 inches of snow during the winter, with 80–90 degree temperatures in the hottest summer months. Pack for that range, and check a current forecast before the trip.

Riverfront Park

Address

507 N Howard Street, Spokane, WA 99201

Hours

Daily, 6am to midnight

Price

Free to enter; individual attractions (SkyRide, carousel) charge separately

Link

my.spokanecity.org/riverfrontspokane

We checked fees, opening hours and seasonal opening on 2026-09-21. These change without notice — confirm with my.spokanecity.org, franksdiners.com and fs.usda.gov the week you travel.

Straight-line distance from Spokane, not drive time.

• Felts Field (SFF) — 5 miles
• Spokane International (GEG) — 6 miles
• Coeur D'Alene Airport - Pappy Boyington Field (COE) — 29 miles