Deep Creek Canyon, Riverside State Park

The story

Sixteen million years ago, thick floods of molten basalt buried this corner of the Inland Northwest. When the red-hot lava slammed into ancient lakes and river channels, violent steam flashes instantly quenched the rock into bulbous, stacked lobes called pillow basalt, leaving behind streaky orange-yellow palagonite clay in the process. Deep Creek Canyon eventually sliced a narrow trench straight through these volcanic layers at the northern tail of Riverside State Park.

The result is a dry side canyon that feels less like standard eastern Washington pine forest and more like a fractured volcanic rift. The overhanging walls form a tight corridor of pitted, eroded rock—making it a low-key sanctuary for local sport climbers who know which overhangs hold bolts. Tucked into the canyon walls are a pair of quiet, ancient lava tubes that most hikers walk right past without noticing.

You didn't hear it from us, but this is one of the few spots near Spokane where you can stand inside the literal seam where liquid earth hit water in violent steam flashes. The contrast is jarring: one minute you are driving past houses in Nine Mile Falls, and twenty minutes later you're crouching inside a hollow volcanic pipe.