When I heard about a “hidden waterfall” while in Spokane, I quickly reply; “Awesome! Let’s go find it!” As I already started packing my day pack with my camera and favorite adventuring coffee tumbler.

Out between the Palisades and the Indian Canyon Golf course is a small park named Indian Canyon with quite a few trails to explore. To get started, travel out on S. Indian Canyon Dr. Once there look for a curve with a small shoulder where there is an old, now gated off, entry road called W. Canyon Dr. on Google maps.

Once you get one of the few spots on the shoulder where you can park, to get to the waterfall really isn’t that far from that gate (passing Trail 121 on your left). To get down to the bottom of this small canyon is a slightly different story. From the W. Canyon Dr. gate side, you have to hike SW around the rim to the other side where you will find several steep single track trails to get down to the bottom. It is not a difficult decent, but mind your step as there is plenty of loose gravel and dry ground.

As push aside some of the overgrown foliage around you on the trail, you’ll start to feel a welcomed temperature drop as the canyon walls raise up above you. Once down there, the falls itself isn’t huge. Standing at maybe only maybe 30 or so feet, this small and narrow (by western Washington standards) splashes down to a small grotto like creek bed, with logs and turned over rocks. What I found nice is that this doesn’t seem to be a heavily trafficked spot. Having the place to practically to myself early morning with a cup of coffee, and film camera in hand. This could easily make for a pick-nick spot for anyone who is up for a low-key adventure who wants to get away from the downtown Spokane area scene.

While I was enjoying my coffee in this little grotto, a local couple , in their golden years, came hiking in. It was their first time there, as when I asked more about the falls they explained to me :

“I have lived in Spokane all my life, and I never knew this was here…”

Pulling out their phone to take a photo of the canyon walls around them, they were loving every minute of being their own local tourist on their tiny Wednesday morning adventure.

Those are my favorite kind of spots, the spots either unknown or overlooked even to locals, are the ones I love to check out when traveling. And as I saw that elderly couple, it also reminded me that when I’m that age I look forward to continuing adventuring, even as a local tourist, with my wife.