If you live anywhere along Bigelow Gulch, you probably think of that stretch of road as a commute, not a trailhead. It carries freight trucks between Spokane and the Valley, it took the county the better part of two decades to finish widening, and if you were around this July you might associate it with the 63-acre brush fire that burned through a field between Bigelow Gulch Road and Pleasant Prairie Road before crews got it contained the same day. What most people driving that corridor don't clock is that the same interchange doubles as the fastest way onto more than 1,200 acres of public land.
That land is Antoine Peak Conservation Area, and here's the part that surprises longtime residents: the trailhead you've probably been using isn't the closest one.
The habit most people fall into
Ask around and the trailhead that comes up first is almost always the East entrance, the Canfield Gulch access point off Lincoln Road. To get there from most of the Valley, you take I-90 to the Barker Road exit, head north to Trent, go east about three and a half miles to Campbell, then north again to Lincoln. It's a real drive, and it's the one most hiking apps default to when they list Antoine Peak.
It's also not the shortest path if you already live along the Bigelow Gulch corridor. The West Trailhead, at 15501 E Brevier Road, sits a few hundred yards off the Bigelow Gulch/Forker Road interchange itself. Exit north onto Forker, turn right onto Brevier, and you're at the parking lot in about a mile. For anyone whose daily drive already includes that interchange, this is the trailhead that was there the whole time.
The West Trailhead isn't just closer. It's also the fastest route to the summit and the quickest connection to the Emerald Necklace, the loop trail that circles the base of the peak at roughly the 3,000-foot level. From the meadow just above the lot, you get a clear look at Royal Riblet's mansion, now home to Arbor Crest Winery, perched on the cliff above the Spokane River, with Peone Prairie's checkerboard of farmland spreading out to the northwest. None of that shows up if you're driving the long way around to Lincoln Road out of habit.
What the East side gives you instead
The Canfield Gulch approach isn't wrong, it's just a different hike. The old logging road converted to trail there climbs more gradually, and it passes Leland Pond, which locals will tell you is your best shot at spotting a moose on the property. The east-facing slope holds more moisture, so the plant life runs richer through the season. Spring brings trillium and shooting stars along the seeps, then lupine and Indian paintbrush later on. If you want the gentler grade and the wildlife odds, that's still a legitimate reason to make the longer drive.
The point isn't that one trailhead beats the other. It's that most people picked theirs based on which one they heard about first, not which one actually fits where they live or what they want out of the hike.
The 231 acres almost nobody uses yet
There's a third entrance, and it's the one with the newest story. The Trentwood Trailhead sits at 17711 E Wellesley Avenue, just east of the Wellesley and Flora intersection and north of Trent. Spokane County finished it in 2021 with 20 paved stalls and dedicated horse trailer parking, and it's the access point for the Etter Ranch addition, a 231-acre expansion the county acquired using a $1,057,647 grant from the state's Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program. That acquisition preserved close to a mile of riparian habitat and protects winter range for the white-tailed deer, elk and moose that use the peak as part of a wildlife corridor running between the Spokane River Valley and Mount Spokane State Park.
Volunteers from the Washington Trails Association and Evergreen East Mountain Bike Alliance built about 2.4 miles of new trail on that addition, including the Arrowleaf Trail, which connects into the Emerald Necklace, and the shorter, lower-elevation Lost Apple Trail. This is genuinely new ground on a conservation area that's been open in some form since 2007, and it's still the least crowded corner of the mountain because it doesn't have the name recognition the older east and west sides carry.
Here's how the three stack up side by side:
| Trailhead | Address | Fastest route in | What makes it distinct |
|---|---|---|---|
| West (Brevier Road) | 15501 E Brevier Road | Off Bigelow Gulch/Forker Road interchange, north on Forker, right on Brevier | Quickest summit access, best Spokane Valley views, sightline to Arbor Crest |
| East (Canfield Gulch) | 19516 E Lincoln Road | I-90 Barker exit, north to Trent, east to Campbell, north to Lincoln | Leland Pond, moose sightings, richest spring wildflowers |
| Trentwood | 17711 E Wellesley Avenue | Wellesley and Flora intersection, just north of Trent | Access to the 231-acre Etter Ranch addition, Arrowleaf and Lost Apple trails |
What the trails look like right now
Given how much of this summer's news out of the Bigelow Gulch area was about fire, it's worth being direct about current conditions. The July fire burned in an open field along the road corridor and was fully contained with no structures lost. Trail activity logged through August on Antoine Peak itself describes conditions as dusty but well maintained, which is normal for late summer on this side of the county. If you haven't been out there since spring, expect dry hardpack, some sandy stretches on the ridge trails, and the kind of dust that means it hasn't rained in a while, not damage from anything that happened along the road this year.
That's good news heading into fall, when the grades on all three sides turn from a summer slog into the kind of hike you actually want to do after work while there's still enough daylight.
Take the other exit next time
None of this changes your commute. It just means the next time you're heading home on Bigelow Gulch and you pass that Forker Road interchange, you're passing the entrance to a hike that's probably shorter than the one you've been driving to for years. Try the west side for the view of the valley and the Riblet mansion. Try Trentwood if you want to see what 231 new acres of trail actually looks like before it gets discovered.
If you're already thinking about what else is changing along this corridor, whether that's how a finished road reshapes property values nearby or what to plan for before you list a place with acreage out this way, that's the kind of question Kristin Vanos fields regularly from people living along Bigelow Gulch. Reach out anytime, or start with a free home valuation to see where your property stands today.
