Our goal was to hike the Trail 25 Loop. Very pretty trail. Don’t miss the Deep Creek Canyon Overlook! Part of the trail was closed but there was a .5 mile detour. I’m rating this a 4 because we could not have hiked this loop without using AllTrails Pro due to the poor signage. Also, the nearby ORV park was pretty loud for almost half the hike. 

Today felt like spring, except for my feet. The day was warm and sunny. By the time I reached the bench at the high point of my hike, I had shed all my warm layers. My feet were still slipping and sliding in the soft snow, despite the microspikes wrapped beneath them. The trail from the Carlson Road Trailhead was well packed, although part of the trail 25 loop hadn’t been used, so I followed the tracks up trail 401 instead. Near the top, once again, the tracks did not follow the trail to the bench. I stayed in the well used rut which follows an old road instead of breaking through the snow where I knew the trail was. 

After a break for lunch and a few pictures of Mount Spokane, I kept hiking south toward Deep Creek Canyon, which I could see from the top of the bluff. The downhill sections were a challenge, so I took them slowly. Fewer hikers had been this way, but the trail was easy to follow. By the time I reached the road crossing, much of the trail was melted out and muddy. I continued across the road on the trail, but I did not find any tracks there. It seems all the other hikers took the road as a shortcut to the parking lot.

I kept to the trail until the corner of Inland Road and 7 mile. I crossed 7 mile and followed the State Park Road to the parking lot and beyond on the Deep Creek Trail, returning to my car on the Centennial Trail. The road was muddy but passable. Once I was past the gate, there was a well packed path to follow on Deep Creek Trail and the Centennial Trail. They are both showing signs of melting out, but it will take a while.

Beautiful hike up the canyon today. No bugs, trail was well maintained. Once we got down the first .5 mile or so of the trail, we crossed the dry creek bed. It wasn't entirely clear where to pick up the trail on the opposite side, but found it eventually. 

Lovely shorter hike, great calf burner! 

We parked at the Deep Creek Canyon trailhead parking lot and hiked the main path for maybe 3/4 mile then took a side trail that came out on the centennial trail right before a bridge that goes over where the creek when running hits the Spokane river. Right after the bridge we took a trail that goes up into some gorgeous basalt rock fields and goes by several tall basalt rocks. That trail lead us down to the creek bed which we followed for maybe 3/4 mile back to our car at the parking lot.

It is rough but hiking through the creek bed is a really fun adventure. It is incredibly scenic and there are a few scrambling up rock places that will keep a person on their toes. Even if you don’t hike the creek, the trails at Deep Creek are some of the best and most scenic in our area. Definitely with exploring if you haven’t already.

The route guide on the main page is wrong, the trails are poorly marked, or both. Because of this issue, I may be reviewing a different trail right now.

The route guide says, "Run down the short hill, crossing the canyon floor, before beginning the climb." My hiking partner and I already ran into trouble here. The canyon looks like a dry creek bed, but the trail does not pick up opposite; you have to turn right (to the north) and walk along the dry creek bed a ways before finding the trail again. However, there is no sign or clear marking, so we first wandered south through a bee village for some way before turning back.

Next, the route guide says, "The route follows the rolling hills toward 7 Mile Road, twice crossing Sand Road and staying generally beneath the powerlines for the first mile." Despite continuing to see trail markers for Trail 25, I never saw power lines or a Sand Road. In fact, Sand Road isn't listed on Google Maps at all.

I really don't know where we went wrong, but the results were the following:

After getting to the canyon, turning north, then heading west again on the trail, we followed Trail 25 markers through pine forests. Wildflowers were in bloom and there were quite a few bees pollinating them. There were other bugs as well that were a continual nuisance; I got one bug bite almost immediately, then put on a heavy coating of bug spray and didn't get any more.

Eventually, there is an unmarked Y in the road, which came as a surprise as there had been so many posts marking our way. We went left and the posts continued; I suspect the right side met back up. In fact, there were quite a less-travelled trails that crossed paths with ours.

We reached Carlson Road without having seen the overlook. Once we got there, it was again unmarked, and we assumed we needed to cross the street; Google calls the area "Carlson rd. Parking." We did find a trail here and took a big loop around, only to find ourselves right back at Carlson rd. Park.

From there we were quite lost; nothing looked like we had expected, despite following the Trail 25 posts. Taking the route guide's mention of the Centennial Trail as a hint, we followed that for some time. We Googled our way back, and Google Maps laid out a one mile trail for us. Generally Google seems to only include the very popular or clear trails, so we assumed this would be safe. Instead, it was a scramble. We had to climb up, around, and across giant boulders. We passed some rock climbers who said we were on the path, so we continued forward. Eventually we came right back to that first canyon. So was it Trail 25 after all? It's hard to say.

Also notable, during the creek bed scramble, someone has spray painted "Hail Trump" with a swastika underneath. It seems like a good time for a work party to take care of this.

Overall, this was a very frustrating hike. I usually don't have GPS or markers and I do fine, so having both and yet not being able to find my way was aggravating. It would be really beneficial for others not from this area or new to hiking if someone who has experience here could update the guide to be more comprehensive.

I would give this trail a rating of a one, but the wildflowers were really lovely and made the first third of the hike worth it.