September 24, 2026
Riverside State Park Partly Reopened. The Line Now Runs Through the Swinging Bridge.
Bowl and Pitcher reopened in Northwest Spokane, but the trail system beyond the swinging bridge stays closed into 2027. Here's exactly what's open now.
Photo: SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0
Walk across the CCC-era bridge at Bowl and Pitcher this month and you’ll hit a wooden barrier near the far end, with a sign explaining that everything past it stayed closed because of Old Trails fire damage. You can cross the bridge itself. You just can’t keep walking once you’re on the other side. Same river, same bridge, two different park experiences depending on how far you go.
That split is the thing worth understanding if you live anywhere near Audubon-Downriver or the Riverside corridor. Riverside State Park did reopen its most popular areas in late August, and that’s genuinely good news. But “reopened” here doesn’t mean what it usually means. It means one half of the park came back. The other half is closed for the better part of a year.
What Actually Came Back on August 28
Park officials reopened Bowl and Pitcher and the Equestrian area on a Friday morning in late August, after nearly four weeks of both zones being shut down. Campgrounds at both sites are back open with reservations available online, and the section of the Centennial Trail between the Equestrian area and the TJ Meenach Bridge reopened with them. Anglers are back at the swinging bridge. The day use lot fills up again on weekends, even if it wasn’t packed the first Friday back.
If your fall routine runs through that stretch of Aubrey L. White Parkway, this is the part that matters most: the bridge itself is intact, the picnic shelters are usable, and you can drive in and park without hitting a closure gate.
Where the Line Actually Is
Here’s where it gets specific, and where a lot of general “park reopens” coverage misses the point locals need. The trail system on the far side of the swinging bridge stayed closed, blocked by that wooden barrier. Among the trails caught in the burn zone are numbers 210, 211, and 212, all of which border the river, along with Trail 25, the longest loop in the park. Trees surrounding Trail 25 were torched, and sections of it were bulldozed flat when crews cut firebreaks during the fire itself.
Beyond the immediate Bowl and Pitcher footprint, the closures widen. The Little Spokane Natural Area and the ground stretching north toward Seven Mile Road remain off limits, with no announced timeline for reopening. St. George’s Put-In, the launch point paddleboarders and kayakers use to access the Little Spokane River, is closed too, blocked by debris the park hasn’t cleared yet.
The scale of what’s left to do is worth sitting with. Crews have identified roughly 1,000 dead trees along the Centennial Trail that still need to come down, plus another 300 or so along Aubrey White Parkway itself. That work depends on ground moisture before crews can safely rebuild trail surfaces, which is part of why officials aren’t projecting a full reopening of the remaining closed areas until spring 2027.
| Location | Status this fall |
|---|---|
| Bowl and Pitcher day use area | Open |
| Trail system beyond the swinging bridge (Trails 210, 211, 212, 25) | Closed |
| Centennial Trail, Equestrian area to TJ Meenach Bridge | Open |
| Little Spokane Natural Area | Closed |
| St. George’s Put-In | Closed |
| Equestrian campground | Open |
One recent visitor summed up the mood better than any park bulletin could.
“It’s sad, but it’s temporary. And I’m so glad to see how many trees they’re taking out and cleaning up the debris, you know, as far as nature.”
According to KXLY, Andrea Spinelli, a Spokane resident, spent an afternoon at Bowl and Pitcher, found she couldn’t get past the bridge, and said she was willing to wait to see the beauty afterwards. That patience is one response to the park’s gradual recovery.
What Never Closed at All
If you’re the type who needs a Tuesday evening outdoors and the trail network is off the table for a while, the neighborhood still has two anchors that sat entirely outside the fire’s path.
Downriver Golf Course has been open since March 6 this year, right on schedule with the city’s other municipal courses. It’s a par-71 layout built in 1916, which makes it one of the oldest courses in the Spokane area, and it sits heavily treed along the river with Riverside State Park as its northern border. The course reopened this season with permanent greens, a working driving range, and its on-site restaurant serving golfers after their round. None of that changed because of the fire. It’s on the unburned side of the map.
A few hundred yards away, the Downriver Disc Golf Course tells a similar story with a newer twist. It was first laid out in 2001 as Spokane’s original public disc golf course, then completely re-established in 2024 with a fresh 18-hole design by David Willman and Jim Schultz. The rebuilt course now runs 23 tee pads and 23 baskets along a bend in the river, rated moderate to challenging depending on which layout you play. If you haven’t been out since before the redesign, it’s a different course now, and it’s sitting there fully playable while the hiking trails a quarter mile away wait for spring.
Planning a Walk Without Hitting a Barrier
The practical version of all this is simple. If you’re heading to Bowl and Pitcher for an evening walk, treat the crossing itself as the destination rather than the starting point of a longer loop, since the barrier sits right at the far end. The Centennial Trail segment between the Equestrian area and TJ Meenach Bridge is a real option for a longer walk or ride without running into a barrier. If you want river access for a kayak or paddleboard, St. George’s is out for now, so check conditions closer to town instead.
Park officials have asked visitors to respect the closure signs rather than duck around them, since crews are still dealing with erosion risk and unstable ground in the burned sections. It’s a fair ask. A park this size takes real time to come back, and the crews clearing a thousand trees along one trail alone aren’t working on a schedule anyone can rush.
None of this changes what makes this stretch of Northwest Spokane worth living in. The river is still the river. A golf course that’s been welcoming players since 1916 never missed a day because of the fire. The disc golf course got better, not worse. And the parts of the park that did burn are healing on a timeline the rangers themselves compare to something bigger than a single season. Riverside has burned before and come back before. This is what that process looks like while it’s happening, not after it’s finished.
If you’re already settled into this corner of Spokane, you don’t need a reason to stay. But if a friend, a sibling, or someone from out of town asks you what it’s actually like to live near Riverside State Park right now, the honest answer is this: half the park is back, the golf course never left, and the rest is worth the wait.
If you ever want to talk about what’s happening with homes in this part of Spokane, or you’re weighing a move into the Audubon-Downriver area, John LJ Kennedy knows this stretch of the river as well as anyone selling real estate in the city. Schedule a free consultation whenever you’re ready to talk specifics.
