Post Falls urges visitors to stay on marked trails at Black Bay Park
Signs at Black Bay Park warn against social trails that can erode rocky ground and scar the Spokane River shoreline at one of Post Falls’ busiest parks.
Post Falls has posted signs at Black Bay Park asking visitors to stay on marked, maintained routes after unplanned social trails appeared at the 56-acre park on the 1200 block of East 3rd Avenue. The city’s Urban Forestry Division put up the reminder in a park known for paved walking and biking trails, fishing access, Spokane River views and connections to the Centennial Trail.
Social trails form when people leave an established route and keep taking the same shortcut or detour until the ground itself becomes a path. Post Falls parks staff said that is especially damaging in arid, rocky soil, where worn spots do not recover quickly. Once people start cutting across a slope or the edge of a wooded area, erosion can spread, vegetation can die back and the informal route can turn into a lasting scar that costs more to fix later.
The National Park Service places trails where they are for a reason, to reduce erosion and keep people away from sensitive plants and animals. In that setting, even a small shortcut can widen into a problem that affects habitat as well as access. At Black Bay Park, where people already use two entrances and a network of paved trails, the concern is not abstract. It is happening in one of the city’s more heavily used public open spaces.
Post Falls has 36 parks, more than 900 acres of park land and 38 miles of trails, so staff are watching how small damage points can add up across the system. City park work elsewhere has used logs to block unofficial routes and reseeding to help disturbed ground recover, part of a practical approach to keeping visitors on planned corridors while restoring the land around them. The trail guidance is largely unenforceable, which makes voluntary compliance the deciding factor.
The issue lands alongside a larger investment at Black Bay Park. In 2023, Post Falls received a $750,000 Land and Water Conservation Fund grant for the park’s first phase of improvements. Prior work there included replacing the trail down to the waterline to meet ADA grade requirements, while a picnic shelter was underway and a boardwalk remained part of the broader plan.
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