Despite Boulder Beach Crowds, No Accommodations Are Planned

On any sunny day at Boulder Beach, the place is packed.

Kids float by on inner tubes. Dozens sit on blankets, taking in the warm rays. The tiny parking lot is overrun with cars.

Earlier this week, Kyle Hubbard stood looking at it all, dressed in a blue wetsuit, black flippers in one hand. A snorkel hung to one side of his beard. “It’s good clear water,” Hubbard said.

He goes there twice a week to catch crayfish. And he wonders why there aren’t any facilities like bathrooms there.

The funny thing is, one of the Valley’s favorite swimming holes isn’t supposed to be one. Boulder Beach, located in the Valley but owned by the city, is actually pretty dangerous, officials say.

“In the last eight years, (there have been) three drownings,” said Sheriff’s Marine Deputy Tom Mattern. “And gosh … another dozen calls about people who have fallen off of or dived and hit their heads on rocks.”

Mattern said the eastern part of the river off Boulder Beach is especially dangerous. The submerged rocks - “we’re talking cliffs,” Mattern said - are hard to see.

People who use the beach often call up Spokane City Parks and Recreation Department and ask for bathrooms. Some want a concession stand.

“You’re not gonna get any because because we’re not gonna build any,” park division manager Taylor Bressler tells them. “We don’t lifeguard it, we don’t do any patrolling and it’s definitely a situation where you’re swimming at your own risk.”

That doesn’t stop the throngs hoping to escape the heat, though. “It’s been a popular place for years,” said Dave Schudel, who was people watching there Wednesday. “It’s always been … it would be a shame if they shut this down.”

Mattern doesn’t want it shut down, just respected. “There is a current, it’s still part of the river,” he said.

“To me, it’s a fantastic place to lay on the beach and wade in the water, but not to race your buddy across the river,” Mattern said. The river is also too narrow to be safe, he said, considering all the boat and personal watercraft traffic.

Neighbors, though, have seen worse days. “(The beach) doesn’t bother me,” said Jeanne De Bricassart, who lives near the area. “It’s out of sight, out of mind.”

Bricassart lives on Upriver Drive, and said a few years ago the place was more crowded than now, and noisier, too. “There was a time you really couldn’t hear yourself because of the motor boats,” she said.

Boulder Beach was a popular boat launch site until 1989. It was blocked off first when water levels fell dangerously low, then when the Centennial Trail went in.

So many people parked cars there, Bricassart said, that it was tough to pass through that section of Upriver Drive. Cars lined each side of the street. Kids sprinted across the road and used nearby hillsides as restrooms.

The situation is better now, Bricassart said. But kids are still using the hills as restrooms.

And don’t expect any Port-A-Potties.

“It’s a hard line to take,” Bressler said. “But we just don’t have the budget to pull that stuff together.”

, DataTimes