Riverfront Park
507 N Howard St
Spokane, WA
A hundred acres of downtown Spokane reclaimed from railyards for a World's Fair, wrapped around thundering waterfalls and centered on a beloved 1909 hand-carved carousel.
Riverfront Park is a hundred acres of green in the middle of downtown Spokane, and it exists because a small city decided to throw a World's Fair. In the early 1970s Spokane cleared the railyards and warehouses that had buried its river and falls for decades, and hosted a world's fair on the reclaimed ground. When the fair ended, the fairgrounds became this park.
Today it wraps around the Spokane River and its powerful falls, threaded with bridges and trails and anchored by a carousel that has been making Spokane children happy since 1909. It is a rare thing: a downtown park where you can hear a waterfall thunder, ride a century-old carousel, and glide over the river in a gondola, all in one afternoon.
What Guests Love
- Riding the hand-carved 1909 Looff Carrousel, a Spokane institution
- Standing on the bridges right over the roaring Spokane Falls
- The gondola SkyRide that glides out over the lower falls
- The Pavilion and its lights, a keepsake of the 1974 World's Fair
Worth Knowing
- The falls run wildest with spring snowmelt and can slow to a trickle in late summer when flows are diverted
- The Looff Carrousel and the gondola charge a small fare, while the park itself is free to wander
- It is a true city park, so expect events, crowds on summer weekends, and easy downtown parking nearby
- Dress for the mist near the falls and for Spokane's hot summers and cold, snowy winters
Details
Spokane, WA
Learn about Riverfront Park
The World's Fair that made a park
In 1974 Spokane hosted Expo 74, the first World's Fair built around an environmental theme. With a population of only around 170,000, Spokane became the smallest city ever to hold a world's fair, yet it drew more than five million visitors over a summer and put the little city on the map.
The whole point of the fair was renewal. For decades the Spokane River and its falls, the very reason the city existed, had been hidden behind a tangle of railroad tracks, trestles, and industry. Clearing that ground to open up the river was the fair's mission, and Riverfront Park is the lasting result, a green civic heart where an industrial wasteland once stood.
The Looff Carrousel
The soul of the park is the Looff Carrousel, a hand-carved wooden merry-go-round from 1909. It was crafted by the master carousel maker Charles Looff, who made it as a wedding gift for his daughter Emma, and its horses, giraffe, and tiger are carved and painted with the exuberance of a golden age of amusement parks.
The carousel spent its early life at Natatorium Park, a lakeside amusement park on the edge of Spokane, entertaining generation after generation until that park closed in the late 1960s. Saved from disappearing, the carousel was brought out of storage and given a permanent home in Riverfront Park in the mid-1970s, where it still spins, brass ring and all, in a purpose-built pavilion.
Over the falls
The park is built around the Spokane Falls, a series of drops where the Spokane River tumbles through the city in a roar of whitewater. Footbridges cross to islands in the middle of the river, putting you close enough to feel the spray, and the sound of the falls is a constant companion.
For the best view, the Spokane Falls SkyRide, a gondola, carries you out over the lower falls and back, a soaring look down at the churning river and the basalt gorge. In spring, when snowmelt fills the river, the falls are a genuine spectacle; by late summer the flow can quiet as water is diverted for power.
A living downtown park
Beyond its landmarks, Riverfront Park works as Spokane's front yard. The Pavilion, a striking cable-hung structure left from the fair, now glows with lights and hosts concerts and events. The Centennial Trail runs through on its way along the river, and lawns, gardens, and public art fill the spaces between.
Because it sits right downtown, the park pours you straight into the city. The historic Davenport hotels, Spokane's restaurants and breweries, and the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture up the hill are all close, making the park a natural hub for a visit to eastern Washington's biggest city.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Spokane
Spokane Falls
In the park
The powerful downtown waterfalls of the Spokane River, long a fishing place of the Spokane people, best seen from the park bridges or the gondola.
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
About 1 mile southwest
Spokane's regional museum in the Browne's Addition neighborhood, with strong collections on the Plateau tribes and Inland Northwest history and art.
Little Spokane River Natural Area
About 8 miles north
A quiet stretch of marsh and ponderosa pine along the Little Spokane River, popular for paddling and for its riverside trail and pictographs.