Swakane Canyon

I took my children, ages 7 and 10, on a backpacking shakedown hike on a warm weekend in May. It was a pleasant day even though we only made it the first few miles up the Swakane Canyon trail before exhausting the younger one. No water is available along the trail as far as we hiked, which meant our packs were heavier than I would have preferred for a learning-hike. The trail being a closed road makes the walking relatively easy and not too steep.

The balsamroot and spring beauty were past their prime in the lower elevations we saw, but still beautiful. The 3-mile road from the highway to the trailhead is somewhat rough, but I was able to slowly navigate my full-sized sedan without scraping the underside. We only met two other parties on the trail, a trio of day-hikers, and a solo bicyclist. The trail is also open to horses although we saw many more deer tracks and scat than horseshoe prints.