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Mount Spokane seeks to add attractions

Amina Giles, right, and Paula Southerlin make their way from the Selkirk Lodge to the cross-country trails Thursday on Mount Spokane. “I come as often as they groom the trails,” Giles said. Gov. Jay Inslee has budgeted money for an expansion of the lodge and other upgrades to the area. (Dan Pelle)
Amina Giles, right, and Paula Southerlin make their way from the Selkirk Lodge to the cross-country trails Thursday on Mount Spokane. “I come as often as they groom the trails,” Giles said. Gov. Jay Inslee has budgeted money for an expansion of the lodge and other upgrades to the area. (Dan Pelle)Buy a print of this photo
Chad Sokol Murrow News Service

Gov. Jay Inslee wants to spend nearly $3 million to improve facilities on Mount Spokane; the organization managing the park is asking for more.

Inslee’s 2015 capital budget includes a request from Washington State Parks to expand the Selkirk Lodge, remove culverts that block migrating fish, and reconstruct a stretch of badly worn road.

“It’ll be huge for our area,” park manager Steve Christensen said of the expansion, which also would create a new horse corral and maybe a biathlon range. “We need some attractions.”

Most importantly, the project would ease crowding at the lodge and better accommodate the growing numbers of skiers, horse riders, backpackers and mountain bikers, he said.

Skier visits have quadrupled from 1997 to more than 90,000 in 2013, said Brad McQuarrie, general manager of Mount Spokane 2000, the nonprofit organization that manages park operations.

Mount Spokane 2000 wants another $2.23 million to work on two other lodge facilities, but that money didn’t make it into the governor’s proposals. McQuarrie said he hopes the Legislature will add it: “We anticipate getting it in the capital budget.”

That money would cover additions and repairs at Lodge 1, built in 1956, and Lodge 2, built in 1961. McQuarrie said the aging facilities are “inefficient, undersized and in need of improvements to serve a growing number of visitors.”

Mount Spokane 2000’s request also would pay for the design phase of a new guest services building. The 15,200-square-foot building would house ticket sales, gear rentals, ski school, a child care center and a large meeting room.

Of the projects in Inslee’s proposal, the road project would be the first to break ground, using $2.4 million to rebuild the quarter-mile before the park entrance. That section is uneven because of a poor base and has never been worked on, Christensen said.

The governor wants $182,000 to begin expanding the Selkirk Lodge and nearby horse camp, a project with a total state cost of $2.93 million. The Spokane Nordic Ski Foundation would match that.

Also in Inslee’s proposal is $384,000 to relocate the park’s maintenance facility away from an environmentally sensitive area along a mountain stream. The project has a total cost of $2.17 million.

If funds and permits come about as planned, Christensen said, all projects would be finished by June 2019.

The Murrow News Service provides stories reported and written by journalism students at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.